bad before good
by byzinha
Summary: Sometimes, he'd wake up crying and the moment he'd open his eyes, with Eijiro shaking him awake, he'd know for a fact that it was because he realized the facts again, like the second shoe had just dropped, except that there'd been so many second shoes the past twelve years. / or the one where Bakugo never really dealt with the loss of Izuku and Ochaco.
1. bad

**Author's note** : VERY IMPORTANT INITIAL NOTE

Hello fellow bnha fans, before you start reading this fic, I need you to know a few very important things, so please, bear with me with this long ass author note.

\- This fic is a Bakugo centered 3-shot, and it picks up over a decade after the first fic of this series, " _love you 'til my breathing stops_ ". In case you haven't read it, it is a Misfits AU (check that show if you like cool powers thingys) where Uraraka, Midoriya and Mineta die. It is not a pretty story, it's very heavy and E rated. In it, Katsuki was very good friends with Ochaco, and found middle ground with Izuku, and he suffers from their loss a lot.

\- If you're coming here for the Katsuki/Eijiro dynamic, you probably should not go any further. The two of them are in a fragile situation, and things don't end up very well. I did mark it as "break up" in the tags. If you read the fic and end up hating it because there's not KiriBaku, don't lash at me, you were warned.

(- Look, I absolutely LOVE KiriBaku. I do. They're my favorite ship of the show. But I had to be mean with them in this fic, I'm sorry, that's just how the story wanted to go)

\- BakuCamie is endgame.

\- Three things inspired this fic: **1)** The book " _Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine_ "; **2)** Episode 2x09 of " _One Day at a Time_ "; **3)** The book " _Looking for Alaska_ ". All of those talk about dealing with depression and/or grief, and that's my m.o. with this fic - to address the way I think Katsuki would deal with those things.

It is supposed to be angst with a happy ending, meaning that chapter 3 probably will have a different tone from everything else. I don't know, we'll see.

Other plot points - like Eri being adopted by the Bakugos, and Momo and Katsuki's affair - will be addressed with more details in other fics of the series. You don't actually have to read all of them, but in case you get curious, the info will be there.

Even though Cly took a look at chapter 1, I don't really have a beta reader, so I'm sorry for any mistakes. I'll try to post chapter 2 in a couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy it!

Oh, and friendly reminder that the bnha characters are not mine!

* * *

 **bad before good**

A Bakugo Katsuki centered three-shot

" _Time only blunts the pain of loss. It doesn't erase it._ "  
Gail Honeyman, _Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine_

 **I. bad**

It was a weird feeling, when Mineta Minoru died, hanging himself on the ceiling of his dorm at U.A. barely halfway through their 3rd and last year of high school. Weird, because no one really noticed that he was gone for a couple of days until Tsuyu pointed it out. Eijiro and Ojiro had had to kick the door open, and what had been annoyance at the boy's refusal to let them in became one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives.

The feeling was weird, because even though they were training to be heroes and had spent a lot of time in the field, most of them had never seen a body before, let alone one of someone they'd known personally, and in some way they all felt a little bit of guilt for not noticing that their colleague was about to end his life.

But the worst part about Mineta's death was that their grief, instead of fading away, would only increase in the following couple of months, pilling on top of one another with the losses that came after it, as if Mineta had opened the dam to flood them with bad things.

Of course it wasn't Mineta's fault that they were dead, but his death was the first signal boost of that end of summer, beginning of fall. A boy hanging from the ceiling of his room announced that the best days of their lives were all but gone.

For a while, Katsuki thought things would be alright, he genuinely thought that, because they were all getting back to normal, but then that crazy bitch Toga Himiko threw a knife at Ochaco's jugular killing her instantaneously, and part of Bakugo's sanity kissed him goodbye.

Mineta could have been a little shit most of the time, but he was also depressed cripplingly, so in some way they understood. But Ochaco? Ochaco was a ray of sunshine. She had the most beautiful laugh and the cutest determination he'd ever seen. She was supportive and hardworking. Katsuki knew that he was a little bit in love with her, but he was more in love with Kirishima at the time, and she, too, with Midoriya. Even though Katsuki'd had the chance to be with her once, they parted ways.

It'd been over a decade already, but Katsuki still thought about it sometimes. He thought about how she twisted under him and moaned his name when he took her virginity, and how he stupidly thought _I love her, she loves me, but she's not the one I want, just like I'm not the one she wants_. Good match, wrong timing, and he wondered what would have happened if he had dared to fight for her, _if_ …

Maybe, if he had, she would be alive now, and… _that stupid Deku_ … would be too.

Ochaco had died in Izuku's arms just a few feet from Katsuki himself and the rest of their classmates. She saw Himiko coming for her boyfriend, got in front of him, took that knife and the once sweet, innocent Midoriya broke beyond repair. It was of common understanding in their class that Ocha and Kiri were the glue, and losing her made them all a bit north-less; understandably no one was as affected as Izuku. School had to send him home for a week, offered psychological support, but when he came back, he still wasn't the same.

Katsuki remembers watching his friend carefully at that time, wondering if that was what happened when one lost their soulmate – as if all light had left you, and you became nothing but a shell. That certainly was what Izuku looked like, and Bakugo even tried to reason with him, show him that he understood, but…

That motherfucking Instaphoto picture tipped him off, and the moment he saw it he knew that something was wrong, but it was only after Momo found the green envelop under Mineta's seat and read the message behind it that he _knew_. He knew without even needing the confirmation from Aizawa that Izuku was gone too, off to a suicide mission he didn't need to be part of.

Grief on top of grief, on top of grief, it was Katsuki who broke this time. He could take Ochaco's death, but Ocha _and_ Deku? In less than two weeks?

Along with Iida, he was sent home too, and put on suicide watch, because everyone knew that he was fucking nuts, but Katsuki didn't feel like dying, he just felt _useless_. How ironic, wasn't it? And getting back to school, it was really hard to once again have that mindset of wanting to be the #1 hero of their generation. Really. Fucking. Hard.

It probably had been the saddest graduation in U.A.'s history. The school was _this_ close to being shut down, seeing all the trouble their hero classes had been going through in the past three years, all the losses they had to endure. They had had dropouts and transfer students over the years, and a class of 20 ending with half of its count wasn't any news, but they had never lost students _like that_.

One suicide, two homicides. Every news headline talked about the most damaged future heroes of Japan.

Most of his classmates went to college instead of starting off as sidekicks right away, Katsuki included; some of them dropped the hero idea altogether, choosing to help others in different ways, and it was only a couple of years after graduation that things started to feel like they could go up again for him.

Sited in Tokyo, Katsuki moved in with his boyfriend and officially started his hero career shadowing his cousin Mt. Lady. At last, his life was getting back on track, and his known personality resurfaced stronger than never. It took some working, but Bakugo's official bad boy mask was on again, and he climbed that ladder to become the hero who never loses, just like what he dreamed of when he was a kid.

Most of all, he settled. While practically every other couple from his high school days didn't survive, he and Kiri remained. They didn't get married, and worked in different agencies, but their lives together were good. Both of them made it to the top 20 heroes of the country, with Katsuki currently occupying the third place, only behind Momo and Shoto. The most damaged heroes in Japan, it turned out, would make great, sympathetic heroes, worthy of the public's love.

(The funniest thing was that even with Shoto occupying his father's position as number 2 hero, Katsuki was the one being called "the new Endeavour" on the streets, even though he didn't like to hold that title – the man was a pain, and he liked to think that he had created his own brand of being a pain. Katsuki saw no use on the comparison, but he understood why it was happening. Endeavour and All Might had been rivals since high school, and their beef lasted for over thirty years.)

The biggest turn-around had been Momo's. After being presented with Midnight's old agency halfway through college, hero Creati shadowed a few top heroes until she had a strong front and publicity, making a name for herself and rising in the ranks like in her school days. Once she got to the top, much like All Might himself, may he rest in peace, it was extremely hard to get her out of there.

It was okay, really. By the age of thirty, Katsuki didn't really feel like seeking that #1 spot anymore; his third place was already pretty neat. He even felt embarrassed every time he thought about fifteen years old him with that insane view of the world. _I'm going to be the number one_. Huh. What for?

Funny how it took Deku's death for him to understand his motivations. That stupid nerd. That fucking stupid useless piece of shit had it all figured out.

Izuku was eighteen when he died. Ochaco was seventeen. And now, Katsuki was almost thirty-one.

Sometimes, he'd wake up crying and the moment he'd open his eyes, with Eijiro shaking him awake, he'd know for a fact that it was because he realized the facts again, like the second shoe had just dropped, except that there'd been so many second shoes the past twelve years. Those times, he'd always tell Eijiro that he dreamed about something horribly sad that'd happen at work hoping that he didn't talk in his sleep, and they would both pretend that things were fine.

Katsuki loved Eijiro more than he loved himself, but sometimes it _killed_ him. Eijiro, who held them, the seventeen that remained, together until their very last day. He who organized a tenth-year reunion at a beach in Wakayama where they had a bonfire like the one they did for their last summer camp, when things weren't completely fucked up yet, and they chatted and laughed and sang, and then went silent _in memoriam_ -

 _-them_

For a night, they were eighteen or seventeen again, reliving all the crazy shit they went through together until Jiro's baby girl decided she'd had enough of gatherings, and Shoji's son scratched his knees falling down the sandbank on a bush, along with many little things that reminded them that they were at the brink of becoming full-on adults now – too close to that age where people stopped calling you a "young adult".

Katsuki drove them back that night, and for the first half hour Eijiro talked about how good it was to see everyone, and how nice it was to remember the good things. He talked about Deku's mumbling, how it always annoyed the whole class, and how when Ocha got embarrassed, she'd just float away, and the pranks! Gosh, Mineta was the best at pulling pranks! He used to be so funny! And then he cried, sobs-and-running-nose type of ugly crying, trying to hide his face with his hands as if it'd stop the tears from falling.

"I didn't cry about this for years!" he confessed in between sobs. "I think about them, of course I do, but I don't cry about them anymore and now!"

Katsuki didn't know what to tell him, so he figured it was best to just listen. It was what Eijiro did for him anyway, when he was really upset, and it always helped.

"I shouldn't have organized this reunion, it was too soon."

The following half hour was silent as Eijiro calmed down, but there was just so much silence Katsuki could endure, so he turned on the radio catching a song halfway to the end, a rock slow song with a soft melodic in the chorus that made him think of things and chuckle.

"What?" Eijiro asked suspiciously, and he shook his head.

"Can you believe that out of all the girls, Kyoka is the one with a baby at age twenty-eight?"

Kirishima chuckled too.

"Her husband was shooting daggers at Denki the whole night, did you notice?" he commented and Bakugo nodded, failing to hide his smile. "Denki has a kid too, you know? With a college sweetheart. I don't know if he sees the boy very often, but he has one."

Eijiro was good at keeping track of everyone's shit. His heart was just big that way.

"Yeah, we got some families in our odd group of acquaintances," Katsuki said, thinking of Mina, who was recently married – they had been her honor guests -, Iida with his pregnant wife, and Yuga, whose husband already had two little kids from his previous marriage. He dared to take his eyes from the road for a moment to look at Kirishima, knowing what he'd see there and choosing to ignore it once again, and held his boyfriend's hand. "It was good to see everyone again. I'm grateful you put it all together and dragged my ass there."

Eijiro smiled sadly, squeezing Katsuki's hand sweetly, and then looked out the window.

"Thanks, babe," he replied watching the houses pass by. "I think I'll take a nap."

Katsuki didn't think he met any of his classmates again after that night. Their squad was all over - Mina (and the wife) had a community center, Sero got a gig in Hong Kong and never left, Denki was sited in Hiroshima. As of the rest of the class, the only time they'd get together would be for emergency crisis where many heroes were requested to show up.

It was always him, and Eijiro. And that was gradually starting to be a lot.

Kiri wanted kids, had been wanting them for years now, and Katsuki always found a way to avoid that conversation. He knew he should just be honest and tell his boyfriend that he didn't want any kids, and he knew that Eijiro knew what he was doing, but they'd been in that push and pull relationship since they met, and at this point they were just… In their comfort zones, he supposed.

Thing was, Katsuki didn't like comfort zones, never did. Once upon a time, he'd _move, move, move_ until things were shaken up and more like he liked them, but things had also changed. That time, when he lost his mind, left him damaged. The years might have passed, but the pain didn't subdue. For a long time, he thought he would never _move, move, move_ on again.

He needed a shift, and that need led him to highs of recklessness and lows of lethargy. The need for something that would get him out of that comfort zone even though he wasn't ready for it, was supposed to get him going and then he'd work from there, but whenever he took a step towards it, it was messy and extremely painful.

Katsuki had come this far, but most of the time he wasn't proud of the person he became. He needed to tell the truth, but couldn't, and he was very good at pretending, but that was making things worse. At the end of the day, Katsuki played himself.

First and foremost, any action taken would hurt Eijiro. To hurt Eijiro was the last thing in Katsuki's list, but wasn't he hurting his boyfriend already? With his 31st birthday coming up, it'd make fourteen years of them being _just boyfriends_. No marriage talk, and if there ever was any, Bakugo would cut it off immediately. No kids talk, and if depended on him, there would never be. All they had was this fancy apartment downtown and amazing sex, and to be honest not even that was paying off; if it had, he wouldn't have…

There were ugly things going on inside of Katsuki. Like the grief that started with Mineta and topped, topped on one another, the secrets were consuming him. Being good at sex was his and Eijiro's _normal_ , and after putting that aside left them with… nothing but empty love.

Heartbreak, at this point, just felt inevitable. As a matter of fact, those thoughts had been haunting him for almost a couple of years already.

Didn't mean Katsuki was okay with them, though. If he opened the Pandora box of open wounds, he would certainly get to _that one_. _That one_ that had broken him and had been ignored for too long. _That one_ that would certainly be salted, if he'd get too close. Number two, Katsuki did not want salt in his wounds.

Katsuki was maybe six when his friend ( _what was his name?_ ) dropped him from a certain height and he ended up with a bad scratch on his chin and nose. Dad happened to be home when he arrived biting down his need to cry, half of his face bloodied, and his first instinct when he saw his father reaching out to hug him in worry was to fight the embrace, but dad was kind and caring, and all he wanted was to make sure that his son was okay.

The two of them went to the E.R. that evening before mother would come home to prepare dinner, and father let him sit on his lap the whole time the nurse treated his cuts, even though his parents were constantly talking about how Katsuki was getting too big for laps. Masaru held his son tenderly that evening, letting the boy dig his nails on his arms when the remedy stung a little, and caressed his pointy blonde hair as the nurse put on some Band-Aid on the bruises.

After everything was done, he took Katsuki's hand and walked back home with him, making a quick stop at the market to buy some ice cream. That night, after dinner, as Katsuki swallowed spoon full after spoon full of ice cream, his dad pushed his hair back gently and wisely told him-

" _See, son? It's got to get bad before it gets good. Just got to remember that the good part will always come, eventually._ "

Remember the thing about the second shoe falling over and over again? That was what Katsuki got for his 31st birthday – another second shoe. From the Tokyo tower, he overlooked the city, cell phone in hand, trying to forget the text he'd just gotten and wouldn't bother to answer, probably. That text was making him think, and to think wasn't a good idea, because he'd been at the "bad" part for a long time already, perhaps the "worst" part of it all, and it felt like he'd never get to the "good".

All of this, it was fucking him up.

Meaning, more than he already _was_ fucked up.

Sighing, Bakugo pocked his phone again, screen locked, and decided to make his way down. He still needed to go back to the agency get some things before heading home, where he'd meet Eijiro so they could go to a restaurant celebrate his birthday. Lots of stuff to do in one day, and no time to answer that Shinso guy's question.

He could explode his way down, of course, because he was super extra, but his shift had just ended and it wouldn't hurt to take the elevator for once, even if it meant taking a selfie or two.

Katsuki's popularity had grown steadily the past decade, in part because he proved himself to be one great fucking hero, but mostly because his personal relationships made him more likable. Eijiro was everyone's favorite and counterbalanced Katsuki in practically everything, for starters; and there was also the fact that his agency was one of the best of the country.

Katsuki had about 7 heroes under him, all with different and outstanding quirks and a similar _modus operandi_ as his. He wasn't much of a team effort kind of guy, and everyone who tried to work with him would get a couple of weeks top to shadow him before it was decided if they'd stay or look for another agency, and even though many of his interns were brilliant on their own, only the brightest stayed.

It was that same team that gathered in the office that afternoon when Katsuki got there; they had a cake and a "Happy Birthday Ground Zero" banner hanging on the widow, hot dogs and mini hamburgers all around, and Mitsuha, who had a voice quirk, sang happy birthday to him as she wheeled the cake in his direction.

"Make a wish, boss," she said clasping her hands. The 31 candles burned in orange and blue, and Katsuki leaned over to take a closer look at them.

"You guys didn't need to-" he said, but Kaneda, who'd been with him the longest, interrupted him.

"Yeah, you say that every year. Just make the damn wish, Bakugo!"

He looked down at the cake again, hands on the trolley, thinking that he'd put the brat on his place later; at this point, the number 1 candle was being consumed faster, looking a bit crooked, and Katsuki closed his eyes to think of what he wanted.

He wanted strength, but that wasn't exactly what he needed at the moment. What he _needed_ … was courage. To tell the truth, to be honest, to get going, to move on. Being strong, he had to learn when he first got into U.A., wasn't nearly enough.

Yeah, courage was the right choice.

Katsuki opened his eyes and blew out the candles; his colleagues clapped cheerfully and a familiar hand clasped his shoulder, making him turn around and face his boyfriend, on Eijiro's other hand a small box about the size of his hand.

For a moment, Katsuki panicked. He remembered how Four Eyes had proposed to his crazy ass girlfriend in the middle of their agency after a busy day, and he hoped to God that that wasn't the case now, because it'd involve hurting Eijiro. It was already determined that hurting his boyfriend was out of the question, but after that dreadful second he realized that no one was kneeling, no one was proposing, it was just Kiri offering his present.

"Happy Birthday, babe," he said pecking Katsuki's lips and melting him a little like only Eijiro knew how to do.

"You didn't need to come, I was heading home," he said opening the box and finding… "A tie? Are you fucking kidding me?"

To his utter distaste, Eijiro laughed.

"What fucking kind of shitty prank-"

"Katsuki," Kiri said softly, taking the tie from the box and putting it around his neck. "We're having a fancy dinner tonight, and all your ties are in shreds."

"Fuck ties," he mumbled and pouted, taking the offensive piece of fabric off and throwing it on Eijiro, who just chuckled. "Fuck fancy dinner, I'm gonna spoil it with cake."

"That's the spirit, boss!" Mitsuha cheered, half a hot dog in her hand. "First slice goes to…"

They all drummed on their tables as he cut the slice and put it on a paper plate. Katsuki made a show of stabbing a plastic fork on the cake and looked around at his colleagues, before he got himself a bite and analyzed it - chocolate cake with ganache, the way he liked it - and then he ate it, making everyone gasp.

"The fuck you expected?" he said with his mouth full. Every year they threw him a party, and every year he did something different. One time, he threw the first slice in the trash (which was a shame, because he loved first slices, but the _aesthetic_ ) and told them that this tradition was bullshit.

Eijiro was used to him already and only shook his head with an amused smile on his face before taking the knife and start cutting more slices for everyone else.

"Who made this shit?" Katsuki asked pointing at the cake with his fork.

"I did, boss," Mitsuha said at the same time everyone pointed at her. "Gia did the hamburgers and Shihao the hotdogs. Is it any good?"

"You all should be _working_ on your cases," he said frowning and they all gulped. "But congratulations, this cake is fucking great."

Mitsuha sighed relieved.

"Thanks, boss," she said and he reached out for a fist bump. "Got you a present too, it's on your table."

Eijiro offered her a piece of cake and she stepped away gleefully. Katsuki ate his cake. Ever so subtly, Kiri got closer to him.

"That girl has a crush on you," he said matter-of-factly and Katsuki rolled his eyes.

"Don't start."

Somehow, Eijiro convinced Katsuki to wear the tie for their fancy dinner. They had reservations at this pretentious French restaurant where food was actually good, but not nearly enough in the plate. Luckily, they had had enough hamburgers and hot dogs at the agency, so they weren't exactly hungry when they got there.

"I got a text from Shinso today," Katsuki told his boyfriend halfway through dessert. Eijiro looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Birthday text?"

Bakugo shook his head.

"No. His wife is pregnant with a boy, they want to name him Izuku."

Kiri's eyes widened.

"Really? _Why?_ " he asked. "I never pegged him and Midoriya as friends."

"He has his reasons," Katsuki said vaguely because he had made a promise so many years ago of keeping a secret.

"And why tell _you_?" Eijiro wondered. "Since when you two are friends?"

"We're not, but he wanted to ask if I wanted the name. For my child someday."

Eijiro's expression softened all of a sudden, like Katsuki knew it would if he was to bring up the subject, and his heart ached, like he knew would happen. _Why did he bring it up?_

"Oh, that's noble of him," Eijiro said smiling. "What did you tell him?"

"Nothing," Katsuki said with a shrug.

"Won't you answer?" Kiri asked frowning. Bakugo shook his head no. "Why not?"

"Let's go home?" Katsuki suggested uncomfortably, signaling to the waiter.

Eijiro was not stupid, Katsuki knew that, but for some unknown reason he kept pushing his luck with him. Someday, the man would break. Someday, he would push the question further until Katsuki had to lay it down to him - those ugly truths, those semi-healed scars with scabs begging to be picked on.

Hopefully, Katsuki thought as they drove home, today wouldn't be that day. Hopefully, he'd get to stay in this comfort zone for a bit longer, even though they already were in their 30s and Eijiro's siblings already were populating the world by themselves, putting some extra pressure to their relationship in the meantime.

At some point he would run out of luck, wouldn't he?

"Why won't you answer Shinso?" Eijiro asked again when they were home, after pouring two glasses of wine so they could end the night. Katsuki accepted his glass with a sigh. "I mean, Midoriya _was_ your oldest friend, and it was very respectful of Shinso to ask for your permission."

"Deku's been dead for almost as long as we knew each other," he answered with a tired sigh.

"So what?" Kiri insisted. "You guys were friends since daycare, you still have nightmares about his death, he clearly means a lot to you still."

"I don't-"

"Don't," he interrupted, sounding a lot like a warning. "You think I don't know you, Katsuki? We've shared a bed for over a decade, _and_ you talk in your sleep."

Taking a deep breath, Bakugo looked away, the glass of wine half full in his right hand, the liquid trembled as he grew more nervous.

"Fuck," he mumbled to himself.

"Look," continued Kirishima. "I'm not saying we should name our kid Izuku. All I'm saying is that if you want to claim the name or not, you should reply him. It's a yes or no question."

"I'm not naming my kid _Izuku_ ," Katsuki said with a snark and Eijiro breathed out in a somewhat relief.

"Okay, fine. There are so many names we could choose, he can keep the name. Or maybe Iida will claim it. Isn't his wife pregnant again?"

"They're having another girl," Katsuki replied casually taking a sip of his wine. "They posted this morning."

"Oh, I didn't see that," Kiri said fishing out his phone to check it out. "But anyway, we can think of other names. You know Mina is still up to the solidary pregnancy."

Katsuki's wine was gone and hadn't been enough. But he _was_ done with the lying. He debated the whole day if he could _do_ _this_ , but it was clear he couldn't, that was why he brought up the subject of the text, because he should just tell Kiri, like he was planning on doing a year ago.

"It doesn't matter," he interrupted Eijiro reaching for the bottle of wine and pouring himself some more. "I'm not having kids."

"What?" Kiri asked confused and Bakugo looked at him.

"I'm not having kids," he repeated, making Eijiro frown at him.

"Okay. You're the genius, but I can do it," he said, clearly not understanding his point, which only exasperated Bakugo more.

"Kiri," Katsuki interrupted again and took a deep breath. He spoke slowly to help the information sink in. "I don't want kids in any way. If we're together and you decide to have a kid, I'd be its dad too, and I don't want to be _anyone's_ dad. Ever. Never have. And I've been waiting for that opinion, desire, whatever, to change, but it never has. Which means it never will."

There was a moment of silence where Eijiro stared at him, jaw dropped, unable to talk. Katsuki feared he broke just like he thought would happen, but then he shook his head.

"You're joking," he said somberly.

"Why the fuck would I joke about something that is important to you?" Bakugo replied scowling. "I know you want kids, and I wish I could want them too, for you, to make you happy, but I can't. I tried to want it, and I can't."

"Then what the fuck are we going to do?" Eijiro asked. He was shaking now, the low liquid in his glass waving with the disturbance. He quickly thought it over, probably trying to find a way out of that dilemma of theirs. "Maybe we can find a point halfway happy for both of us. A godchild or… I could do social work."

"Don't be stupid, that won't make you even halfway happy."

"What do you mean, that I want to have kids more than I want to be with you?" Kirishima asked offended.

"That's exactly what I mean, actually," Katsuki said evenly and took a sip of his wine.

"That's bullshit," Eijiro replied exasperatedly. "I _love_ you."

"I know that!" Katsuki barked back. "And I love _you_ , but I know for a fact that it won't ever be enough!"

"You're tripping, you had too much to drink," Kiri said reaching for his glass of wine, but Bakugo kept it out of his boyfriend's reach, opting to set it down the coffee table himself. "Look, let's talk about it."

"We are talking about it! You're not listening to me!"

"Listening to what?" Eijiro interrupted him. "Because it sounds like you're saying that in order for me to fulfill my dream of being a dad, we'd have to break up."

"That's what I'm trying to say," Katsuki insisted.

" _You want to break up?_ You just told me you love me."

"And it's killing me, Eijiro!" he practically shouted; he rubbed his face nervously, trying to put his thoughts in order. Maybe he did have too much to drink, but if he lost fuel now, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to get through this conversation again. "If we stay together and decide to have a kid, it'll make _me_ miserable. If we stay together and decide not to have a kid, it'll make _you_ miserable. Don't you get it? There's no space for you and me anymore."

"You're right, I don't get it," Eijiro replied with the same level of anger. "We've been together since we were seventeen, Katsuki, how is it that fourteen years later you decide it's not worthy anymore? I was going to fucking propose to you this summer!"

"Don't throw that shit at me now!" Bakugo protested. Fuck, he knew the proposal was coming, he should've ended things a long time ago.

"Look at me, Katsuki, and tell me we shouldn't be together anymore, that this is what you want."

With a deep sigh, Katsuki did what Kirishima asked – he looked right into his eyes, and he said the words.

"We shouldn't be together anymore. It's not the same, and you deserve to be happy. I can't make you happy."

"You think a kid can? When you don't even want one yourself?"

"I'm not kid-friendly!" Bakugo said annoyed. "I don't like kids, I can't remember a day in my life when I was like 'you know, I'd love to have kids and raise them, and shit'. That's not _me_ , Eijiro. But it is _you_. You love that shit, you've talked about it since we _met_."

"Then why the fuck did you kiss me for the first time? If you knew!"

"Because we don't get to choose the person we fall in love with!"

That shut them both up, and for a moment they just stared at each other wide-eyed. This conversation was not going in a good direction, and it was as if Katsuki could physically feel the change of mood in the air. Finally, Eijiro spoke up.

"But we get to choose to keep loving them," he said very calmly; he reached out and touched Katsuki's cheek, fingertips almost as rough as Bakugo's, and he closed his eyes under his boyfriend's touch.

Maybe this wouldn't go as south as expected. Maybe they could part ways smoothly.

"Babe, let's figure it out," Kiri said tenderly. Bakugo was hopeful too soon, it seemed. "Marry me."

"Eijiro." He replied like a warning.

"Let me choose you. You know I do, over and over."

"Don't do this," Katsuki said standing up and walking towards the kitchen. Eijiro followed him.

"Why not? We love each other. Come on-"

"I CHEATED ON YOU! OKAY? AND I CAN'T GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT. I DON'T DESERVE YOU!"

Taken by surprise, Kiri paused and stepped back.

"You… _what_?"

"I don't want," Katsuki continued in a much more controlled tone, but still nervously avoiding eye contact. "To hurt you, I swear I don't, but I've been thinking about breaking up for months and I was sure I would do this _so long ago_ , but shit kept happening."

"When?" Eijiro asked evenly, and when Katsuki looked at him, it was as if all light had left him. Was that how he looked like on a daily basis? He swallowed before answering.

"About a year ago? I think? When I went to India."

"India?" he echoed and Katsuki nodded. "Who… was it Mitsuha?"

"What?" Bakugo asked confused, for a moment incapable of remembering his own employee. "No! Gee, what's your problem with her?"

"She went with you!" Kiri argued and he rolled his eyes. "And she was sent by Utsushimi."

Camie's last name sounded like an insult coming from Eijiro's mouth, and it took all the self-control Katsuki could gather not to groan.

"You say it as if she's some sort of _spy_. You can't possibly still be hung up on me and Camie," he said, to what Kirishima scoffed. "We literally hooked up _one time_ in like, second year. _Before_ you and I got together, even."

"Do you call fucking on a daily basis 'not together', Katsuki? Because that was our situation at the time."

"I was fucking Mina on a daily basis too, and she never thought we were together," he replied. "Some of those times you were there too! I don't see you jealous of _her_."

"Mina was different," he argued and this time Katsuki was the one to scoff.

"Bullshit," he replied; at each word he stepped in Kirishima's direction intimidatingly. "Mina took my virginity. It's been a fuck ton of time and I still remember how she feels under my touch, I still know exactly what to do to make her squirt, and she probably knows better than you how to turn me own. And yet, you're not jealous of her. Camie and I had a one-time thing. It was fucking amazing, best pussy I've ever had, can't deny that. But it was that and never again. She graduated, we barely saw each other again, she's across the country from us and we only get to meet when there's a major crisis. So why the fuck are you jealous?"

Eijiro swallowed, taken aback by Katsuki's words. He knew he'd been borderline cruel, but some things just didn't make sense with Kiri, and since they already were going downhill, what the hell, right?

"Who, then?" Kirishima asked instead, and Bakugo sighed.

"You don't want to know."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you don't." Katsuki said with finality. "You think you do, but you don't. You claim to know me so well, well, news fresh, Eijiro, I grew to know you a whole fucking lot too!"

"WHO WAS IT?" Kirishima asked again, pining Bakugo against the wall, and he grunted angrily. He didn't even realize when the intimidation had shifted hands.

"FINE! It was Yaoyorozu."

"STOP FUCKING WITH ME!"

"I'M TRYING TO, YOU IDIOT." Katsuki screamed back, finally making some sense come over Eijiro, who let go of him and stepped back.

"You didn't fuck Momo," he tried to reason.

"I did. She was fresh out of that divorce of hers, and I was sure I'd break up with you as soon as I'd get back. I could tell you we were drunk, but we weren't. And when we got back… you…"

"Were in the hospital," Kiri finished the sentence for him; this time he was the one avoiding eye contact. Bakugo let out a shaky breath.

"The villains had attacked and you were badly injured. You needed me, I couldn't leave, not yet. So I kept staying."

"Is that why Momo's been avoiding me?" Eijiro asked, his voice weak.

"I don't know," Katsuki answered and Kiri turned his back on him. "Maybe. She felt bad when we saw the news at the airport."

There it was again, the silence. None of them moved or talked for a long time, though Eijiro kept his back to Katsuki for as long as possible. Bakugo understood, honestly, why he would want to avoid him for the rest of their lives, if possible. Fourteen years they'd been together, but it was the first time they cheated; if it had been the other way around, he didn't know how he would react. Violently, maybe, probably.

"So, what is it?" Eijiro said half turned in Katsuki's direction, still facing the other side. "You and Momo are _in love_?"

" _What?_ " Katsuki replied with a scowl. "No! We fucked, and that was it. I told you I love you."

"Then act like it!" Kirishima said turning to him again. There was passion in his words, but not in his eyes. "Make it work, make _us_ work. I forgive you."

"No." Katsuki said firmly.

"No?"

"Don't you get, Eijiro? I've been trying to make it work for _years_ ," he explained feeling the tears starting to pool in his eyes. Damn, it was no time to cry! "And it's about time I let go."

"You're tripping," Kirishima insisted. Part of Katsuki knew it'd be that hard and had been expecting that reaction from the get-go, but part was surprised, and he sighed in frustration as he stepped away just to stop abruptly at Kiri's next words. "Are you taking your meds? Do you need to recalibrate them?"

"Am I-" Bakugo replied aghast turning to him, and he shook his head. "This has nothing to fucking do with anything, Eijiro, no need to be an asshole about it! All I want is for us to part ways in order to be happy, that's all!"

"So you can run to Yao-Momo's arms, right? She is a real fit for you, isn't she? Barren and all."

"Don't be like that," Katsuki said as a warning pointing a finger because Kirishima was on thin fucking ice if he kept it up. "We're adults and I believe we're perfectly capable of dealing with it like adults."

"Well, I'm sorry if I can't fucking take it in one go that you don't want to build a family with me after over a decade together, that you want to break up, and that you CHEATED ON ME WITH ONE OF MY FRIENDS!"

"I thought you said you forgave me."

"SHUT UP, KATSUKI, SHUT UP!" Eijiro screamed on top of his lungs; Katsuki would be lying if he said it didn't make him shrink a bit under Kiri's sad stare, cracking voice and angry face. "Why would you do that to me? Why would you stay, and lie over and over and over, and fuck with me, make me think we would have the rest of our lives together? Why?"

"It's complicat-"

"Complicated my ass!" he interrupted him, pointing a finger at Bakugo's chest, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I knew all along that you were a broken piece of shit, but I loved you anyway, and for what? So you could shit all over me?"

"I didn't mean to, I swear," Katsuki said low, and when he blinked his own tears fell too. "I'm sorry."

"Fuck your sorry!" Eijiro spat back. "Fuck you."

With determined steps, Kirishima backed away and walked towards the lobby, where he got his jacket and keys, but Bakugo followed him closely.

"Kiri, you don't have to leave, I'll go. This is your apartment."

"Don't bother," he replied pocketing his phone and putting on the jacket.

"I mean it. I can sleep in my agency."

"Katsuki," Eijiro said coldly – something Bakugo honestly thought would never happen. "It's your birthday, you should sleep on your own bed. I'll be back. Eventually."

Only Katsuki didn't know if he would be here when he came back, but it wasn't as if Eijiro was giving enough space to say goodbye. Before he could step forward, the door was closing on his face and he was left in the empty apartment that used to be his too, but didn't exactly felt like it now.

The house phone rang and it probably had been ringing for a while before he realized it, so he hurried back to the living room and picked it up.

"Bakugo speaking," he said.

" _Oh, Mr. Bakugo_ ," a women's voice said on the other end. " _It's Fera, your wall neighbor? We heard noises, and we were worrying if everything was okay_."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Bakugo complained and hung up on her face. Fuck the neighbors, he needed to live somewhere with no people around, Tokyo was driving him crazy too.

The bottle of wine still was on the coffee table, so he picked it up and sipped straight from it. As he did that, he thought about his childhood house and about the last time he had talked to his father. It wasn't that long ago, when he had to recalibrate his meds like Kiri accused him of not doing.

Casting a glance at the clock, he saw that it still was a quarter to midnight, meaning that it still was his birthday. Thirty-one years old. Professional hero #3 Ground Zero. And (finally) single (the way he was supposed to be all along. Why did he think he could ever make someone happy?).

Well, what a _great, cheerful_ way to end the day, and Bakugo hadn't even said everything he had to say about the matters they discussed. He didn't say that back in high school he never thought he and Eijiro would be the couple to last, didn't say how he was chin deep in this well of sadness and their relationship was not helping him get out of it, and he didn't say that on top of never wanting kids, after their 3rd year all he could think of was that he didn't want to bring someone to this world just so they could die before reaching their full potential like Deku and Ocha did.

Raising his bottle to anyone in particular, Katsuki made a toast.

"Happy fucking birthday, you useless piece of shit."

Another proof the world liked to turn in weird directions, if he dared say.

* * *

 **a/n** : NOTES ABOUT THE CHAPTER

\- Shitty cousins AU comes from blamedorange (pen name Red Okra)

\- The song that comes up on the radio when they're in the car is Gorillaz's _Tomorrow Comes Today_

\- _Q: Bee, how do you choose the names of your OCs?_ A: Very wisely. I google "japanese _ team" and pick the names from there ^^' or from characters I love (like Kaneda).

Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated!


	2. worse

**Author's note:** Hello, thanks for staying! This is the second and longest chapter of this three-shot. It is heavy, it has ups and downs, a bunch of OCs, and it talks about grief and depression.

Also, prepare to see some familiar faces, especially those who are up to date with the manga (I'm not, but I check the wikia page very often ^^')

I hope you enjoy it. Kudos and comments are appreciated!

* * *

" _My love, paralyzed, jumps  
Swarms, howls. Cheers, sad wolf!_"  
Carlos Drummond de Andrade, _Os poderes infernais_ ( _The infernal powers_ )

 **II. worse**

When Katsuki was cleared from the hospital in the numbest state he had ever been, feeling like the pile of crap he had suppressed his whole life, his mother took him home with a slip that said he had 7 days off. He rode on the passenger seat while she drove, and for once mother and son didn't know what to say.

It was a quiet drive.

"I'm sure your sister is eager to see you," Mitsuki told him at some point, probably the only time she spoke up. "We didn't tell her yet, but we will. Today. She'll need you."

Well, that was fucking great, wasn't it? That they happened to adopt the one midget that absolutely adored Deku. Could that day get any worse? Probably not.

He got home and went straight to his room, closing the door behind him even though his mother said not to. The room was the same as it had been since he had to move to the school's dorm three years prior, which was kind of sad. Every long break, he'd come and say he'd change it a bit, but the change never happened and now he was stuck with the dark room of a boy that didn't know better.

Of course he knew better now, but what was the fucking point anymore anyway? So he walked to the window, peeked at the sunny end of summer day and as quietly as he'd never been he told it to go fuck itself before he closed the curtains.

If the room was dark before, now it was perfect. He pulled the covers and climbed into bed, tucked himself in real tight and faced the wall. His intention was to sleep, but sleep didn't come; instead, his mind went blank, as if there was a weight tied to his feet that made him sink, sink, sink deep into thick water that never, ever drowned him, just blocked everything else outside and if he as much as tried to reach up, break the surface-

 _I loved her too._

 _I loved him too._

 _And they are dead and gone. They are both fucking dead and fucking g-_

Sink.

Sink, Katsuki, sink. A bit deeper. And don't, for the love of God, think.

He didn't know how Eri reacted to the news, but he thought he heard some childish cry coming from the room across from his that night, not that it was enough to make him get up from the bed. His phone, that had been thrown on the floor after the first couple of buzzes in his pocket, didn't see a charger for the next couple of days, and then for the other couple of days after that. His parents came and went leaving trays of food that were left practically untouched, and trying to convince him to get up, eat, shower.

At that point, Katsuki was out of tears, out of hunger, and out of fucks to give. The school had called this time off "suicide watch" because he was critical. He had been kidnapped in his first year and considered unstable, and now, he almost blew half of their school's classroom in a wave of sadness and anger. Though his palms were sweaty now, not even the prospect of blowing shit up lightened his mood.

 _Suicide watch_. How can someone be suicidal when they can't even bring themselves to _do something_? Staring at the palm of his hand that was the conclusion Katsuki got to – that he was too useless to do anything ever, even taking his own life. Was it possible not to want to die, but also not to want to live either? And how was it to live in between?

"Kacchan?" a tiny voice called from the door, pushing it open after knocking, and he swallowed, closed his hand in a fist. "Are you hungry? I brought your dinner."

He didn't answer her, but he felt Eri's hesitation when she stepped into his room. She hadn't come yet, even though his parents had told him more than one time that she wanted to see him, and his room probably smelled like ass.

After that first moment of hesitation, she entered in the room and he heard her put the tray on his desk. He didn't turn to look at her, but he guessed what she was doing – taking in the mess of pillows and covers scattered around, the tray of untouched food from lunch, the slit of light from the street coming in through the curtains. Eri shifted on her feet, silent as a cat, and stepped closer to the bed. He supposed she could see that he was breathing, even though the light was minimal in there, but it didn't stop her from climbing on the bed by his side and touching his shoulder.

She didn't say anything then. That tiny, tiny hand of hers slid down his arm and rested on top of his clenched fist, and she laid her head on his shoulder, stayed like that for a good couple of minutes barely moving, her thumb traced his in a soothing motion. He could make out a few of the scars on her arms in the dim light, though they'd been less visible now with his mom's skin care treatment, and it made him think about how Deku had scars like that too.

It didn't help to think of that, but Eri's presence somehow dulled the feelings, made them bearable. He didn't know how that was possible, and also didn't care. It was good, and he just wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

"I'm here, Kacchan," Eri told him tenderly, and placed a tiny kiss on his shoulder. "Just call me, okay?"

He didn't answer again, but he didn't think she'd be offended by his lack of words. Eri was just a kid, after all, and kids worked in a different frequency than those who were older than them. She probably didn't know how deep the meaning of her words were, and probably wouldn't remember it in a couple of days, but the feeling of security she left lingered for longer than expected after she got up and took the tray from lunch with her under a request for him to eat.

Katsuki still wasn't hungry, still couldn't cry, but maybe, just maybe, there were some fucks to be given around after all. He didn't know, would have to mull it over for a while longer.

Those days, the only moving Katsuki had been doing was from bed to the toilet. He'd drift through slumbers and wakefulness, and he'd stare at the wall or the ceiling with his mind blank, except it wasn't blank at all – as if all the voices in his head already became white noise.

It didn't take too long for the feeling Eri had brought with her dissipate, and soon he returned to the beginning. Both sinking and drifting.

Katsuki was brought back to reality the day after his sister visited him because of another visitor who came in without knocking, flicked the light on and strutted straight to the window, pushing the curtains open.

"What the fuck!" he exclaimed turning on his back to see who dared, voice hoarse for lack of use. "Yu, close that shit!"

"Nope," Yu said sitting by his side on the bed. "This room smells like ass. Aren't you happy to see me, lil' cousin?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely not," he replied checking her up and down and frowning in disbelief. "What in the living fuck is that?" Katsuki asked pointing at her stomach and she shrugged.

"Do I really have to explain it to you? I thought you were a player," Yu said resting her hands on her bump, the wedding ring glistering on her left hand. Katsuki made a face.

"Are you crazy? You're at the peak of your career and you find yourself a _baby_?"

"Hey, little shit, I'm a married woman and I'll have a baby whenever I want."

Katsuki scoffed.

"How come no one knows about it?"

"We didn't tell the press yet," she said. "Too much stuff happening and all."

"Maybe you should," he said turning on his side and facing the wall again. "Some good news for once."

"Oh, you think my son is good news?" Yu said mockingly, shaking Katsuki by his shoulder. "Thought you just said I'm crazy."

"I don't care about your fucking baby!" he replied shrugging her off. "I don't care about any baby or toddler or whatever. But people love that. Jesus, they fucking love that."

"You have a point, I guess," she said pensively and he scoffed.

"Do you even have a reason to come here, besides, you know, pissing me off?"

"I actually do," Yu said and reached for something on the floor. Katsuki heard the zipper of a bag being opened and her shuffling through its contents as she spoke. "I wanted to talk to you about something important. You remember when you were kidnapped?"

"Wish I didn't," he humbled and she hummed.

"Yeah, me too," she said with so much honesty that Katsuki even stopped fidgeting with the fabric of his sheet and started paying attention. "For your rescue, I got badly injured, first time in my career, and it wasn't really… easy to come back from that."

Yu sighed and passed her right arm over him, trapping him on the bed as she leaned on that arm absently.

"It was something I never experienced before, you know?" she continued. "To go back to the streets and do missions and shit without freaking out, having panic attacks. To _sleep_. For a while, I was terrified, paralyzed. It was a living hell inside my head, dude. You know what I mean?"

He didn't want to admit that, but he did know what she meant. He'd had the panic attacks before, he was terrified before. And it was a living hell right now, but he wasn't in the mood to tell her that.

"I think you do," she said simply, almost softly. It was hard to recognize her, that mature, family woman that Yu was becoming. They'd never been in very good terms, the two of them. "Katsuki, I needed help. And I got help."

Katsuki didn't say anything to that, though, because he had a good guess as to where she was going with that talk and he didn't like it. He never liked being the mentally unstable kid and always thought he could figure a way out of it alone, even though he'd been constantly failing at it. He just wished she wouldn't say anything. Please, don't say anything.

"I think you need help too, Katsuki," she said anyway, and he swallowed his rage dry and bitterly. He'd have to give it to her, though; it'd been a weak move on Yu's side, coming to him knowing that he wouldn't fight her in her condition. "I told aunt already, but you're an adult now. Eighteen, right? Here."

Yu showed him a business card, and then shoved it under his pillow, not giving him time to protest.

"She's my shrink and she's great, I promise. She's helped me a lot, maybe she can help you too. I know you don't want to talk to me, or to aunt and uncle, but you have to be able to talk to Eri, and for that you'll have to open up to someone else. Therapy is good, dude, it helps so fucking much, and at this point, that eight years old who came to your lives less than a year ago is handling things better than you. How's that good for her, huh?"

"I hate you," he mumbled, but it was a half-assed emotion, and it made her chuckle.

"No you don't," she replied. "Look, just think about it, okay? It might be good for you and your career. You still want to be a hero, right? Start small," she patted his hair and made a face. "Like, by taking a shower, my fucking God, Katsuki."

"I don't want to shower."

"No wonder this room smells like a dirty clothes basket."

"Why don't you fucking leave?"

"Boy, you have no respect," she said, but she stood up, hung her purse on her shoulder. "You're lucky I do have to leave. Aunt is taking me to the storage room, apparently, she kept some of your baby clothes, so cute!" she said that last part pouting at him and pinching his cheeks, which made him even angrier, and he pushed her arm away. Yu laughed. "Just think of what I said, okay? And behave."

"I always behave."

"Come again?"

"Close the curtains."

"Not a chance!"

She kept the lights on too, but she did close the door as she left, which was a relief. The clarity wasn't welcomed but was less bad than the movement from outside.

That night, Katsuki's muscles protested way too loudly for him to ignore it for any longer, and because of that, he realized that he was hungry. He was sure that he'd be unable to force down more than a few spoons of soup, as it'd been the past days, but he had to eat something, he supposed. He just needed to find the will to get out of bed, and in doing so he found the card his cousin had left under his pillow.

 _Boni, Mila M.D._

 _Psychology and Psychiatry_

He'd been running from shrinks his whole life, but… but…

There had got to be a way for him to stop feeling useless.

That was the will he was missing – Katsuki's own weakness came from his fear of not being needed, not being useful, and with all that happened the past month… was there anything else to feel _but_ that? Hard to tell.

He got out of bed, then, with incredible difficulty, his whole body protesting, telling himself that he'd just close the curtains and bite on whatever it was his mom left for him this time, and as soon as he limped to the window, he caught his breath.

The sky was painted navy blue, dotted with stars. Stars were a luxury in cities like his, and it was so rare to find them in the night. What time was it, anyway? He couldn't even tell. Probably the darkest hour, for the stars to show up. And Katsuki was holding the curtain, ready to close it, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

He forgot. He forgot how beautiful it was. Forgot how starry the sky was like this when he first kissed Eijiro, the most perfect night of his life.

The curtain remained open as he stepped towards his desk, where a tray of food waited for him. He was growing steadier at each step, and when he lifted the lid, he eyed the tokoyakis with half-watered expectations.

Yu. Mother had prepared the dish because Yu'd come over and it so happened that it was his favorite too. He took one with two fingers and bit half of it afraid of feeling sick and ruining his favorite food forever. Spicy, just how he liked it.

 _That old rag_ , he thought as he chewed the rest of his food. He loved her so much. Would never admit that, though.

What time was it again? Oh, yeah, Katsuki still didn't know, but he was feeling sticky and filthy, so it'd probably be a good idea to shower. It'd be good to know where his phone was too, but since he didn't feel like answering anyone, it didn't really matter.

Katsuki put the lid of the tray back on and left the card Yu had given him on the desk, and then he made his way to the door. He was sure everyone was asleep, so he opened it gently, trying not to make a sound, and to his surprise-

"What the fuck, munchkin!" he said under his breath when he almost stepped on none less than Eri.

She was sleeping on the carpeted floor, a cushion under her head and a pink blanket covering her, and she nearly scared him to death. Eri's room was right across from his, the door was open, but she chose to sleep on the floor in front of his door. She was one weird kid, he'd give you that.

Carefully, Katsuki stepped over her and kneeled down by her side, pushing her hair back to look at her worried little face. What the actual fuck indeed, pipsqueak. With no hesitation, he took hold of her small frame and lifted up, if with some difficulty. Katsuki wasn't at the prime of his strength at the moment, but Eri was small for her age and he sure as hell could carry her a few feet to her bed.

After she was properly tucked in, he noticed on her nightstand nothing else but his phone plugged to the charger. Katsuki picked it up and unlocked the screen, saw that she had answered all the messages he didn't feel like answering, must of them from his school colleagues.

Now, Katsuki was sure he left the phone unattended and discharged because he couldn't give a shit about answering anyone, so she must've found the phone and done the charging and answering on her own, which proved she was one sketchy little mouse and totally fit with their family – as if he didn't know that last part before.

With an amused chuckle, he sat the phone down again and gently huffed Eri's hair, careful not to wake her, and then he got out of there, heading for a shower he longer needed.

His old bedroom didn't see that many changes over the years that followed. Sure two of the four walls had been painted in softer colors, and the curtains were now a nice green instead of his good old black, but the bed was the same, and so was the desk with the computer on top, the wardrobe on the corner still had all the band stickers glued to it.

"It's just for a few days," Katsuki told his father when they were at the door. Masaru looked at him smiling.

"This is your house, son," he replied patting his shoulder. "Stay for as long as you need."

"Thanks, dad," he said feeling embarrassed.

"I'm going to make us some tea," Masaru said and Katsuki nodded.

"I'll be down in a sec."

He entered the room and set his bags down by the door, taking a good look around. There were photos of the family all around, and the board in front of the desk also had many of his father's croquis. Katsuki's room still was his bedroom, but as the season neared, Masaru's atelier got crowded, so he'd been using it as an extended studio.

Katsuki took his phone out of his pocket and sat down on the bed facing the desk. He'd been doing some house researches on his phone, but he couldn't help but look at those photos in front of him. His parents particularly liked to display photos of him and Eri growing up, and it was a bit sad to see that he hadn't been around for most of Eri's important years.

His phone vibrated with a notification catching his attention and he looked at it frowning.

 _Pipsqueak: R U REALLY HOME?_

 _Pipsqueak: ILL BE THERE IN 30_

"The fuck you screaming for?" he said chuckling. "Crazy."

He closed the app, and the one right under it was the real state app. Katsuki had been checking so many housing options the past couple of days, but nothing was the way he _wanted_. Finding a new home would be quite some work, it seemed.

"Is that apple and jasmine?" he asked his father when he went downstairs, and Masaru nodded smiling.

"Your mother is bringing a Red Velvet, but she said we could start without them."

"Sounds like happy hour," Katsuki suggested with a raised eyebrow, and then he looked over at the counter that worked as a bodega as well.

"Aren't you on meds?" his father asked and he rolled his eyes.

"I can drink every now and then!"

"Oh, didn't you have your birthday like three days ago and went out for a drink?"

Katsuki didn't answer that, he just stared at his father with a bored expression. There it was, the reason he didn't stay home for long after graduating, and the reason he would soon bounce.

"Fine, just tea!" he caved. "But with a lot of sugar."

"I know my son," Masaru said sitting by his side and pouring him his tea. "He likes his pepper, and he likes his sugar. If you didn't burn calories so quick and efficiently, I _would_ worry about you."

"I'm a powerhouse," Katsuki bragged, flexing his biceps and his father was the one to roll eyes this time.

"It's actually surprising you're not bigger than that. Remember when you were in school? Those heroes like All Might and Endeavour."

Katsuki made a face.

"Look, I loved All Might, but I've been getting comparisons with Endeavour since _school_ ," he said honestly. "The guy was huge, there's no way in fucking hell I'll give them any more reasons to compare me to him."

"You know what, son, you're right. Just do you."

If only Katsuki knew who the fuck was that. But that wasn't the talk he wanted to have with his dad (though it was a talk he'd been having with Dr. Mila for the past decade), and the two of them let it slip. Instead, the older man simply dropped three cubes of sugar in one of the teacups and handed it to his son.

"Dad, are you too busy with the collection?" he asked after stirring the drink and sipping his tea.

"Not yet, no. Why?"

"Could you… take a few days off and go with me to see some apartments?" he asked kind of waiting for his father to say no, but knowing he'd say yes.

"Can your mother come?"

"NO!"

"Jeez, kid," Masaru said laughing. "I was joking. Sure, of course I can. What do you have in mind?"

Katsuki opened his mouth to answer, but the door was (probably) kicked open and in like a hurricane came Eri, followed closely by Mitsuki.

"Brother!" Eri exclaimed running to him and sliding to his side, barely giving Katsuki any time to react.

First, she embraced him from behind, arms around his shoulders as she squirmed in excitement and kissed his cheek so many times, and when he thought she would let go of him, it was just enough so she could round him and sit on his lap to give him a proper hug, and this time Katsuki had to reciprocate.

"You cut your hair," he observed, having to pat the curls that were hardly down her shoulders now.

"I can't believe you're home," Eri replied instead, leaning back to look him in the eyes, hands on his shoulders. "How long are you staying? Did you and Kiri really break up? Is it true that you cheated on him?"

"How do you know _that_?"

" _You did?_ " his mother asked outraged. Eri shrugged.

"It's all over the news, especially after you announced you were passing your agency to Timeline and Whispers. Great choice, by the way. Did you know that they interviewed your neighbor?"

"You talk so fucking fast," Katsuki said slowly under his breath, just for emphasis.

"We just have a lot to cover!" she argued, but Masaru patted her arm tenderly.

"We have time, sweetie," he said. "Why don't you sit down and cut that cake for us? I'll serve you some tea."

"Okay!" Eri said jumping from Katsuki's lap to the chair right next to him, and therefore giving space for Mitsuki to approach and kiss him on the side of the forehead.

"Oh, my God, woman, get off of me!" he complained, but she just kissed him again, making Eri giggle.

"Treat your mama with respect, boy!" Mitsuki said slapping the side of his head playfully. Another day at the Bakugos'. "Now, that neighbor of yours said it was quite the fight," she continued as she sat in front of him. "Did you have to cheat, Katsuki?"

Frustrated, he threw his hands up.

"I thought we were through!" he exclaimed annoyed. "And if Eijiro hadn't been at the hospital, we probably would be!"

"I have a lot to say about all of that, but," Masaru said faster than Mitsuki, who was ready to lecture him. "We can keep that for later, and just enjoy our tea for now. Eri, love, how's the cake?"

"Here!" she said, offering him a plate with a sizable piece of Red Velvet. The small, round cake already was almost half-way finished with the slices she had cut to the four of them. Katsuki was the last one to get a piece, and then she elbowed him. "To having my big brother home again."

"Did you take dramatic arts in college or something?" he asked and she shrugged gracefully.

"Maybe."

He cut a bite of cake with a fork and savored the piece with gusto for a moment, the whole family doing the same. At the Bakugos', they _appreciated_ food like nowhere else. And then, the started talking again.

"How's work with Shinso?" he asked Eri, and she got hyped pretty fast again.

"It's really cool! His quirk is awesome!" she said with shiny eyes. "Oh, and his son was born! Did you know that he named him Izuku? Isn't that nice?"

"Yeah, I know," Katsuki said, fork ready for another piece of cake. He also knew that their parents were observing him, waiting to see his reaction. "Did you get to see the baby?"

"I did! He's so cute! His hair is like, this weird shade of red? And he has _a lot_ of hair. He's a sweet little baby, didn't cry at all when I held him."

Katsuki chuckled.

"Then he doesn't take after Deku at all, he was a fucking crybaby."

Unable to contain themselves, Masaru and Mitsuki started to laugh, catching their children's attention.

"He really was, wasn't he?" Mitsuki said, calming down. "That boy."

Soon, they were all laughing – Eri more discreetly than the others – each with a memory of Deku coming to mind at that moment. Sometimes, it didn't hurt at all to think of him, and Katsuki would think " _Well, would you look at that. It's like Deku's just this dude I once knew and totally lost contact with now_ ," and it'd be peaceful in his chest.

(of course there would be a second shoe later; there was always a second shoe; it'd come in an hour or in a month, but it'd always, _always_ come.)

"You guys have so much more memories of him than I," Eri said quietly when the laughing died down. "I remember him, alright, it's just… sometimes it amazes me, how much more you have of him."

"Sweetheart, we saw that boy be born," Mitsuki said sweetly like she only was with Eri. "They lived in the complex across from us their whole lives."

"I know, I know," Eri said, trying to play it off. "It's just me being stupid, ignore me."

They wouldn't ignore her, Katsuki knew. The last time they had let one of their children be stupid and ignored, he nearly drowned in his own complexes. The thing was, they would let it slip now, and then they'd talk to Eri before going to bed, and ask her to tell them what she was feeling. Maybe she wouldn't say anything, probably she would, because Eri was just open that way. And then, they'd suggest that she'd talk about it with her therapist too.

"Anyway," she continued quickly. "Hito's Izuku is the sweetest of the babies, so different from Yu's Somaki, remember?"

"Somaki is just like his mother!" Mitsuki exclaimed. "I don't know how Kamui remains sane, I swear!"

" _I_ know," Masaru joked and they all laughed, until-

"Hey!" Katsuki and his mother said at the same time.

Both Masaru and Eri sipped their tea at the same time too, hiding their chuckles behind their sips in the deepest complicity there was. Days at the Bakugos' were good.

Masaru did indeed have a lot to say to Katsuki – about his break up, and him passing the agency to another hero, and him wanting to suddenly move to somewhere unexpected – but the thing he couldn't stop talking about was Katsuki's choice of communities.

"Wow," he said condescendingly as his son turned the car towards yet another risky neighborhood. His tone of voice was really something, considering how he never ever acted up. "You really are in deep with this change of airs, aren't you?"

"Dad, I told you," Katsuki said as if he was saying this for the thousandth time. "Housing in these types of neighborhoods is super cheap. I can't think I'll be able to afford a terrace house if I don't have an agency, money _will_ be shorter. _No, I don't need any loans_. Besides, I want to go somewhere I'm not known."

"You're the number three hero of the country, I don't think that's even possible."

"You know what I mean."

"Same way I didn't think it was possible for you not to cuss _once_ ," Masaru observed impressed and Katsuki shook his head.

"Enjoy while it fucking last, old man," he replied and his father laughed. Katsuki glanced at the GPS, slowing down. "I think it's here."

Out of the five keys they had gotten with the state agency, this was the last one of the day. Katsuki parked across the street and hopped out, followed by his dad. He double checked the address and frowned at the big doors marked with gang signs, ground level windows shut with wooden panels. There was no garage, he knew, and most people in that area used the parking lot down the block. He could also keep his car there, behind those doors, if the description of the place was anything similar to the real thing.

"Charming," Masaru said casually. "There's a gate."

There was a gate a little to the left. It looked secure enough, with a lock and everything, and through the bars they could see another door on the side wall. That gate was leading to a narrow staircase with another door at the top, and they supposed that the real house was upstairs.

"Was this some sort of establishment?" Masaru wondered and Katsuki shrugged, unsure of what the place had been. There was no plaque to clue them.

"Well, they didn't give us the keys to the gate," he said taking a good look at the set of keys he had in hand. Four in total, but none of them said 'gate'. He pointed at the double doors with a thumb. "So I guess whatever is in here, it's part of the deal."

They exchanged of look as if agreeing that they were about to find out, and then Katsuki got the key that said "double doors" and opened them. The place was dark and ample, and they used their phones' flashlights to look for the lightbox. It was easy enough to find it, but the light provided was low and yellowy, not helping their case much.

"Give me the keys," Masaru requested, and Katsuki gave them to him absently, looking around the space.

There wasn't much to see, really. Everything seemed dusty and old, not for use. To the left and back, there was something that looked like a kitchen, but that Katsuki wasn't sure he wanted to see right now. Maybe the place had been some sort of restaurant? There were a few tables and broken chairs near the possible-kitchen, so he was speculating. Across from the possible-kitchen, there was another door that led somewhere else. An alley? A backyard? He'd find out later.

"Damn, that thing is rusty," Masaru complained, catching Katsuki's attention again. His father had opened the side door they had seen from the gate, the light from outside helping them see better in that large room, and then he waved at his son. "Come on, let's see if the apartment is good."

Katsuki nodded and closed the front doors before following his father upstairs. He already was unlocking the door.

"What, do you think that if the apartment is good, I'm going to buy it, even though downstairs is a real dumpster?"

"The dumpster can become the greatest garage-slash-man-cave ever if you're creative enough, son, and I know you are," his dad replied entering the house, Katsuki right behind him. "You are my kid after all."

"Humble."

"Besides," he continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "I saw the way you longingly looked at the Deli place? A block from here? You already love this neighborhood."

"Shut up," Katsuki replied rolling his eyes, though he had to admit to himself that his dad was not wrong. The other apartments they checked were nice and all, but none of them had good restaurants nearby, and here he already had seen three besides the aforementioned Deli. And no one could go wrong with Deli.

Besides…

"This actually is really nice," Masaru commented taking the opposite direction as Katsuki as they looked around. "Definitely the largest place we visited today."

"Look at that kitchen," Katsuki marveled. It was a great kitchen, totally old school, probably the best one he'd seen so far. The window had a view to the street and everything.

The living room was small, but that didn't matter to him. All he needed was a bedroom and an office. And a good bathroom, of course. But if he had a bedroom, an office, and a fucking amazing kitchen like that, he could deal with an okay bathroom just fine. He would be buying this place. He would be able to do anything he wanted with it.

"Oh, it is a great kitchen!" Masaru exclaimed when he got there. "You'll like the bedroom and the bathroom too."

"Big?" he asked and his dad nodded.

"Like at home."

Though the apartment was clean, it didn't have any furniture, meaning that Katsuki would have to start from scratch with that too, but he was the number three hero, and he could afford it. Besides, there was a storage unity in Tokyo filled with his shit, and it wouldn't be so hard to pack this place with them.

"I just know you're keeping this apartment," his father said joining him in the soon-to-be-office, where Katsuki was taking another look at the street. "Don't make this face, how many times do I have to say that I know you? _As I was saying_ , I know you're keeping it, but let's take a better look downstairs, okay?"

"Yeah, let's go," Katsuki agreed. "At least they didn't leave the house dusty like it is downstairs."

"Honestly."

They locked the apartment and headed back to where they came from. The front doors were still closed, and even though they had to adapt to the light again, it was easier to take things in this time.

There were two small rooms (storage? Office?) that were unlocked and as empty and dusty as the saloon, and the thing to the left really was a kitchen, with a professional stove and everything. Katsuki would have to ask if the stove was part of the deal too because he liked it.

As for the door to the right, it led to a narrow backyard – not big enough for him to be able to plant a garden like the one they had at home, but nice and cozy with the right care; and there was another gate that took him to the side alley. From that yard, they could see the balconies of the apartment's bedroom and living room, as well as the bathroom's window, but there was a thick net that prevented people from flying there or jumping here.

"You know what, dad?" Katsuki said pensively as he looked around that garden one more time. "You're right, I really fucking love this place." Masaru shrugged as if it wasn't any news. "How do you feel about checking that Deli to make a decision?"

"Ah, Katsuki…" Masaru said resting a hand on his son's shoulder as they walked to the front door. "There are times I have my doubts, you know? Like, what the hell happened there. But then are times like this, and I just know you're my kid."

Katsuki gasped and his father laughed. They stopped to lock each door as they went, keeping the place as it was when they arrived.

"You're such an ass," Katsuki complained, making Masaru laugh more.

"See what I mean?"

They finally made it to the sidewalk again, and when they turned around after locking the doors, there was a group of kids ogling at Katsuki's car; it startled Masaru, but as for Katsuki, he just stared at them confused.

"Oi?" he called crossing the street. "What y'all bunch of scrawny fucks looking at?"

"Katsuki!" Masaru warned, following his son to the other side of the street with quick feet.

"Nice car you have here, dude," said one of the boys smirking. He was dirty, with greasy black hair and green eyes.

"I know," Katsuki replied, staying alert. There were seven, eight boys, and street kids were as quick as they were smart. "You all live here?"

"Maybe," the same boy answered, but he was pushed back by a bigger boy.

"Don't tell him nothing," the bigger boy exclaimed. "We don't know who the fuck he is. Might as well be one of them rich folks looking for a click to their good will whatever the fuck they do."

"Boy, you have a mouth on you," Masaru commented. Good, because Katsuki was at a loss, and he couldn't seem to find the words, which was a first. That boy… "Well, we don't know you either. What are your names?"

"The fuck you care about names?" him again. He was taller than the other kids, maybe the oldest. His eyes were icy blue, and the hair was dirty, but it seemed to be… white, or maybe a really light blond.

"They just happen to be humanizing, kid," Masaru said tiredly. "And I like to treat people like people."

"Dude," the boy said making a face. "I can smell the bullshit from here."

"Do you care for respecting older people, you little piece of shit?" Katsuki snapped, at first surprising the kids, but then the bigger one, the one who seemed to be their leader, smirked as if he had his point proven.

"Hm," he said crossing his arms. "Let's bounce, guys."

And just like that, the horde of street kids was out of there. They crossed the street and ran through the alley to the side of the building Katsuki wanted to buy, making noise and laughing loudly, as only kids are capable of doing.

"I'd say ' _kids these days_ ', but you talked just like him when you were that age," Masaru said and Katsuki scoffed. They rounded the car and took their seats, and he started the engine. "Do you think they're hungry?"

"Probably," Katsuki replied making a non-authorized U-turn. "But we can't do anything right now."

"Yeah… Not about them," Masaru said checking his phone. "But if we don't take something to go for your mother and sister, we _will_ have trouble."

The first thing Katsuki got done once the keys were on his possession was change all of the doors and locks, as well as fixing the windows downstairs. And with fixing those things, he also had to get the electricity and lights going properly. And since he was at it, he decided that if they could somehow put a window by that industrial stove (that also needed fixing) without damaging the structure of the whole building, they should.

"I know there's a laundry upstairs, but if you want to maximize the space," Eri suggested when he took her to see the place during the reforms. "You could, like, cover half of this yard…? Can we call it a yard? It's so narrow. But you could cover with those transparent roof tiles, you know? And make it a laundry."

"I see what you mean," Katsuki replied, index finger tapping his chin pensively. "But it'd be really close to the kitchen."

"You won't use this kitchen that much, let's be real," she cut immediately. "Besides, just don't do laundry when you decide to cook downstairs."

"I was thinking of a vertical garden, though."

Eri's eyes widened.

"I love that!" she said stepping more to the side. "If you roof half of the yard, you'd still have what? Two meters to put the vertical garden here. I can totally see it."

"Maybe paint the wall green?"

"Like the green of your costume, yes!" Eri neared the wall and her fingers brushed it as she thought about it. "A wood structure, some cute vases and you'll have a bunch of strawberries and basil and tarragon…"

"And a lemon tree in that corner," Katsuki said, pointing to the corner next to the gate that'd take them to the alley. Eri clapped her hands.

"You're so aesthetic, brother, I love it."

"I need to paint this place," he said pointing at the salon, and the two of them headed inside again. "Maybe change that room, expand it and turn it into a bathroom?"

"Is it going to be your man cave?"

"I don't believe in man caves."

"It could be your new agency. Did you talk to the local heroes already?"

"Yeah, I'll start my shift next week, after I officially move. Solo, though. What did you say about agency?"

"Well, even _if_ you're going to go solo, you should have a base of operation. No one said it couldn't be the same place your car is parked, right? Besides, this hangar is huge."

"It's not a _hangar_ ," he said scoffing.

"I'll call it a hangar until you name it," Eri said with her hands on her waist. "And yeah, you should have a bathroom downstairs, I like that idea."

"Help me think of colors, midget, it's what I called you here for," Katsuki said poking her, and she crossed her arms.

"Well, are you going to change the colors upstairs too? I gotta say, I love the kitchen."

"I have a strong feeling that the reason I chose this place was because of the kitchen. Look at the shit ton of money I'm spending just to get this fucking garage fixed!" he thought of the apartment upstairs, wondered if he wanted to change it. "But yeah, I don't think I'll change much of it. Maybe just a black wall in my room, and one of those erasable boards in the office. I really have no fucking clue how it's going to look like with furniture inside."

"Okay, then, do you want the two places to look similar, or to complement each other?" she asked, still on the colors case. "You can either go real safe here, white walls, shit like that, or you can go bonkers and throw colors everywhere, like one of those housing shows mom loves to watch, you know?"

Katsuki made a face.

"I don't know if I could pull that shit, he said looking around at those boring walls. "But I was thinking of, like, red? I don't even know where to start."

"Brother," Eri said putting a hand on his shoulder, and he looked at her. "Don't worry about it, you've got me. And I'll do it."

"Don't you have to work?"

"My break is almost due. I can request it and get started as soon as they finish the new window and the backyard."

Sounded like a plan.

Katsuki only saw the street kids again after he already had moved in. As a matter of fact, he didn't even know if those were street kids, but all he knew about them was that they were dirty and loud on the streets of that neighborhood, so that was how he was calling them.

That first reencounter wasn't with the whole group, though. Just one little girl hanging on his side gate to see what he was doing.

"You're planting _grass_?" that youthful voice said catching his attention, and he looked up confused, because he didn't see anyone at first, and none of the people working on the reform talked like that, until he spotted the little fingers grabbing the bars of the gate, and then his eyes met with yellow eyes. " _Why?_ "

"I am," he said. "And because why the fuck not."

"That's a shitty reason," she reasoned. Katsuki smirked.

"It is, isn't it?" he replied and saw her nod. "It's to strengthen the soil."

"That makes more sense. Previous owner didn't do half you're doing."

"Looks like," he said getting on his feet. "They did preserve a perfectly neat kitchen, though."

"Yeah?"

It was hard to see how that girl was through the tall gate, so Katsuki got closer to her carefully.

"You're alone?" she nodded again and he frowned. "No school today?"

"I don't go to school."

"You have to. How old are you?"

"Old enough not to go to school," she said defiantly and Katsuki scoffed.

"Why can't I believe you?" he said crossing his arms. The girl pouted uninterested. "What's your name? You live nearby?"

"You could say so."

"You don't have a home?"

"If you mean house, maybe," she replied smartly. "But if you really mean home, then no."

Smart kid. And interesting answer too, but he still didn't know her name. His father had been persistent on Katsuki learning people's names, because he never bothered and was always nicknaming everyone, even against their will. He couldn't guarantee he'd remember the names, but he at least could be polite enough to ask.

"Why is there grass in only half of the yard?"

"Because the other half is my laundry," he said pointing back.

"Why don't you send your clothes to laundry mats like every rich person?"

"Who said I'm rich?"

Through the bars, he saw her raise an eyebrow.

"You have a fucking vertical garden," she said. "Means you eat your own organic shit. Only rich people do that."

At that, Katsuki genuinely laughed, and he could see the surprise in the girl's eyes when that happened.

"At least you didn't call it pretentious, like my sister's boyfriend did," he said with a shrug. "He asked me if the aesthetic came with being queer and everything."

"Bit of an asshole, huh?" she observed and he hummed. "Do you like him?"

"Sometimes. He's a brat, but I can relate."

"'Cause you're Ground Zero?" she asked and he raised an eyebrow.

"Did your research."

"People here don't miss a beat, mister."

"I see," he nodded. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't." he smirked again and she mirrored him. "I'm good. I know. See you around, hero."

And just like that, she was gone. He'd only find out that her name was Poky days later, when he came across her and that blue-eyed kid again as they turned down a dumpster looking for food. Katsuki had just finished his round in the neighborhood and had gone to the supermarket before heading home, so both his hands were carrying bags full of goodies.

"That's not the healthiest diet," he said startling the girl, and right away the boy poked out of the dumpster.

"That's all we've got, so," she replied. Looking at her without the gate between them, he could see that she was scrawny, with ratty clothes, but probably small for her age. In their first encounter, he thought she couldn't be older than eleven, but now he doubted. "Unless you have something to offer."

"Poky!" the boy scolded, but she ignored him.

"Thought you said you had a house," Katsuki pointed and she shrugged.

"Having a house is different from having food on the table."

"Poky, right?" he said carefully stepping closer.

"Stay away from her!" the boy said and something blue sparkled in the alley, making Katsuki frown.

"Blue Dragon, relax," Poky said.

"What kind of fucking name is that?" Katsuki said disgustedly.

"The kind that is better than Ground Zero!"

" _Excuse me?_ "

"Whatever!" Poky exclaimed. "Let's bounce, Blue, he won't give us his precious food anyway. Are those store bought? I thought you were an organic freak."

"Oh?" Katsuki said mocking surprise. "I didn't know I owed you shit."

"Poky, come on," the boy said taking her arm, and Katsuki frowned at his actions, wondering what kind of dynamic they had going on. Also, that boy…

"How many do you have to feed?" he asked catching their attention as the two kids were walking away from him. Poky stopped, but the boy – he refused to call him by his stupid, probable self-given name – wanted to continue walking. "The other day, I saw more kids. How many are there?"

"About fifteen," Poky said, to the boy's total distaste. "Sometimes more."

Katsuki hummed then, thinking about it.

"Okay," he said. "Can you gather them and take them to the Deli place on the other block in about half an hour? I'll meet you there."

"Huh?" both kids asked confused and he frowned.

"Funny. Didn't think you were deaf," he said full of sarcasm, and Poky made a face at him. "Just take as many kids as you find there, will you?"

The boy scoffed and started walking again, but Poky sent him another glance before she followed her friend. He didn't know if they'd go, but he'd at least try. So Katsuki went home, put his shopping aside, changed to warmer clothes and headed back to the Deli shop, where he set to wait for his guests. The busy restaurant was relatively empty, being past lunch hour, so he wouldn't have trouble squeezing the kids inside.

Katsuki waited for 10 extra minutes, hearing the chit-chat of the kids right around the corner as they tried to decide if they should trust him or not. It was kind of funny to hear them arguing over the pros and cons of trusting a pro-hero, and everything, until one of them detached from the group and decided to face him. It was the boy he had seen the first time, the one with black hair and green eyes.

"Do you really want to buy us food? This is not a ruse?" he asked standing a few feet from Bakugo, and the hero nodded.

"The fuck would I want to ruse your sorry asses for?" he replied and the boy smirked, looked at their friends and gestured for them to come.

"You know, I always liked to watch Ground Zero in action," the boy said getting closer, a bunch of other kids following him, Poky included. "You're so fucking extra."

"Kid, I was born extra," Katsuki replied, and the kids laughed.

"Well, after you, Mr. Ground Zero," Poky said sarcastically.

"Just Bakugo," he said holding the door open. "I'm off duty at the moment."

" _Are you sure?_ " another girl asked passing by him on her way inside.

He waited for them to get inside and watched as that older boy, Blue Dragon, stood on the corner looking at his friend as if they betrayed him. Katsuki wanted to ask if he wouldn't come too, but before he could do that, the boy turned his back on him crossed the street, so he went inside where a dozen dirt kids were talking loudly.

The restaurant smelled amazing – cheeses, and dried meat, and so many different spices hung all over the place. On bad days, hung things would trigger Katsuki right back to high school, when his colleague's room door was kicked open; or to that time when he got to a building too late and this chick got caught on some cables and died hanged there; or-

But that wasn't a bad day, and those things didn't even cross his mind. Instead, he thought of buying a string of salami once this was over, even though it was too salty, and that maybe he'd get a bit of cheese too to counterbalance the taste.

"Okay, everyone sit down, find a seat, whatever," he said shooing the kids towards the tables. "You see the menu over there? What does it say in the big letters?"

"Dish of the day: Chinese curry," some kids answered. He wasn't sure all of them knew how to read.

"Yes, exactly. That's what you're having unless you're allergic. Anyone allergic?"

They shrugged and exchanged looks.

"Don't think so."

"Great. You," he said poking the green-eyed kid who was closer to him. "Know how to count?"

"I'm twelve."

"Nice. Do you know how to count?"

"Yes."

"Great, now count how many kids you brought so I can order."

"Why don't _you_ count?" the boy replied with his nose up defiantly. Katsuki glared at him.

"Who's paying again?"

It probably wasn't a great idea to act like they had to earn something he was actually giving out pure will, Katsuki knew that, but those kids were wild, and he needed to establish some sort of dominance before he could do anything else. So the boy counted, and there were thirteen children from ages 7 to 12, and Katsuki headed to the counter to order.

"Bakugo, what kind of craziness is that?" the owner of the restaurant asked after sending the orders to the back.

"Just an idea I had, but I'm still thinking about it. Do you think you could let them have their meals here if I paid for it?"

The man looked at him first in shock, then considering the offer.

"I don't know, maybe. Will have to talk to my wife first."

Katsuki smiled and nodded. He knew the man's wife, she worked at the restaurant too, and he had a good feeling about how she would like his proposal.

"Think about it, Lee. It'd be fourteen, fifteen extra sells _per meal_ ," he said, his smile turning to a smirk. "I know you'll do the right thing."

The food came quickly because almost everything was already made; they truly had been the last clients for lunch hour, and soon those kids were occupying their mouths with white rice and spicy chicken instead of talking. Their food smelled better than the restaurant had when they first came in, and if it felt like that for Bakugo, he wondered how it was for them, who'd been eating out of trash bins.

The thought actually made him kind of sad.

"Here," Lee said offering him a bowl of yakisoba. "Wife said it's okay as long as they don't come in rush hours."

"Thank you, Lee," Katsuki said accepting the food and bowing. "It means a lot. Hey, can you get me another of the day to go? Thanks."

He sat down in front of the green-eyed kid to eat with them and try to get to know them a little bit, if possible, and Poky peeked at his noodles.

"That looks really good," she said leaning against his shoulder, even though her plate was still half full. Katsuki elbowed her away playfully.

"Yeah? Thursday's dish of the day, you can eat it tomorrow."

The boy in front of him scoffed.

"He's got jokes."

Bakugo raised an eyebrow, chopsticks halfway to his mouth.

"What's your name, kid? I know she's Poky, and that the creepy outside is… _Blue Dragon_ ," he said, head tilting towards the glass window where they could see the boy standing on the sidewalk watching them eat. "How about the rest of you?"

"I'm Sasaki," the boy answered with his mouth full and elbowed the boy next to him.

"Miura."

One by one around the table they said their names and most of them were lost on Bakugo right after, but if those kids were in this neighborhood as often as he supposed they were, soon he'd learn them. Thirteen, fourteen counting the weirdo outside, kids, only five girls and the rest were boys. Some looked like runaways, some like they lived on the streets; anyway, all of them seemed to be extremely poor and so hungry.

They didn't want to talk, they wanted to eat, and Katsuki had promised food, so there they were until more or less two thirds through their meal when they started talking again. Yuki Lee, the wife, brought orange juice in plastic cups for everyone and greeted them warmly before she returned to her place behind the counter.

"So," Katsuki said. "What's his deal?"

"Huh?" Sasaki said and then it clicked. "Oh, Blue Dragon? He's just grumpy, it's all."

"Why does he have that awful nickname?"

"His name is actually Ao," Poky said. "Setora Ao. He's been in the system since he was a baby."

"Poky!" another girl scolded, but Poky didn't seem to mind.

Bakugo had a good guess as to why the other girl worried about him knowing such things; theoretically, he'd have to call social services right away if the kid had run away. He knew, because he actually minored in social services back in college. But Bakugo wasn't there to snitch on anyone, he was there to help. And before knowing how to help them, he had to know them.

"He got the nickname because of his quirk," Poky continued, easily the most perceptive of them all.

"And what quirk is it?" he asked.

"Blue flames," Sasaki told him. "It's kinda flashy, that's why he gets to have a cool nickname."

Katsuki made a face.

"Who said it's cool?" he asked truly disgusted. "Is that what you kids think is cool nowadays?"

"Dude, are you even that old?" one of the kids asked and they all laughed. He shook his head, though they had a point.

"Every one of you has quirks?" he asked and they nodded; this girl with a shaved head looked at him as if he was crazy. "Don't look at me like that, Eleven, I've met some people who didn't. What's your quirk?"

"Iron manipulation," she answered. "And my name is Tominaga."

"Magneto it is, then," he joked and she crisped her eyes at him. He elbowed Poky. "You?"

"It's a water quirk, nothing special," she said and he scoffed. "What?"

"My sister's boyfriend has a water quirk, you know what he does for a living?"

"The boyfriend you said you don't like?" she replied instead.

"Not the point," he said. "He's a hero."

"Wow, that's brand new information," Sasaki said and the kids laughed. "Did you invite us here to try and convince us to be heroes?"

"No," Katsuki replied, feeling borderline offended. "But I do think you kids deserve better. I thought you were hungry and wouldn't mind food in your bellies. This isn't some shitty agenda, it's just being a fucking human being. Maybe if normal folks treated you better you wouldn't be so damn distrustful."

He stabled some pieces of capsicum angrily, and then put them in his mouth, chewing with determination. Those damn kids, he just wanted to do something nice.

"Uh…" Sasaki said timidly, clearly intimidated and Bakugo looked at him. For once, his mouth wasn't full of food, and as a matter of fact, his plate was practically clean. "My quirk… is animation, I guess?"

"What do you mean?" Katsuki asked.

"Well…" the boy said nervously, and Poky nodded prompting him to demonstrate.

Sasaki got Miura's empty cup, then, and held it close to his lips. He took a deep breath and blew inside the cup, and then he set it down the table. Right away, the cup started moving as if it was alive, and Katsuki was pretty sure it turned to Sasaki for instructions.

"Flip," Sasaki said, and so the cup did.

It was… incredible, and Bakugo couldn't hide how fun it was to watch that. He looked at the boy who was sitting across from him and couldn't help but smirk.

"Holy breath," he said and the kid pretty much blushed. "That's pretty awesome."

"Thanks, I guess."

Before they could leave after eating, Lee left the food to go to the table and that was Bakugo's cue to talk to the kids.

"So," he said putting both hands around the bento. "How do you guys like the idea of lunching and dining here every day?"

"Come again?" Tominaga asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It is possible for me to pay for your meals – up to twenty. As long as you don't come on rush hours, Lee and his wife can feed you," he said, watching their shocked expressions closely. "One meal for each, every lunch, every dinner."

"No breakfast?" one of the kids asked and the others told him to shut up.

"What do you guys think?" Katsuki said ignoring him. He would have to think about their breakfast later, but that restaurant didn't have that option and for now, two meals would have to be enough. "Deal?"

"You're serious?" Sasaki asked.

"Did I stutter?"

"Then fuck yeah," Poky agreed, followed by _yeahs_ and excited claps. "Dude, you should be ranked higher."

"I should, shouldn't I?" he said tapping his index finger on his chin, and then he offered the bento to Sasaki. "Here, give this to Setora. He won't accept it from me, but maybe he will from you. Also, convince him to come to eat too, he's invited. Now shoo."

"Will do, sir," Sasaki said with a bow. "Thanks for the meal."

"Thanks for the meal," the other kids echoed bowing too.

"Whatever," Katsuki replied, but they already were running out of the door while he was left behind to pay.

They had a good system going after that. Katsuki's home was finished and he now had his own agency downstairs, in his "man cave". He really needed to find a better name for the garage, because he hated how Kota had been calling it.

Everything looked very different from the first time he'd been there – the walls were painted in lighter colors, and Eri had added colorful details everywhere. There was a shower and a toilet there now, a cabinet with clean towels and nice soaps. And close to the door that'd take them to the stairs, they built his office. It small and had a nice window to the street, and it was painted in his Ground Zero colors.

Then, there was the kitchen. With a new window to the backyard, they had installed a barbecue grid next to the stove and put a cabinet under the sink with all kinds of kitchen supplies. Finally, there was a fridge and a freezer.

A trimester after moving there, it was safe to say that Katsuki had himself a nice garden. Some herbs he planted in his home kitchen too, and there was the lime tree in his balcony, but the garden of the backyard made him really proud. As soon as that summer rain was over, he'd be able to pick some berries.

Katsuki checked his wristwatch and supposed he still had time to go to the Deli place to pay the bill. Maybe the kids were still there, and Lee said they needed to talk. He hoped the Lees wouldn't stop feeding the kids; Bakugo knew that some clients were complaining because the kids would stay across the street waiting for the restaurant to empty so they could eat. So he got his umbrella, put on his boots and left on foot since it was close by.

He entered in the restaurant busy to shake off the water of his body and umbrella and headed straight to the counter, where Lee greeted him with worried eyes. The kids were chatting and laughing loudly, as they usually did, so Katsuki didn't even have to look in their direction to know that they were there, and as soon as Katsuki approached Lee, he took out his wallet.

"Hey, dude, how much do I owe you?"

"Huh?" Lee asked confusedly, and then he shook his head. "That's not why I called you here."

"No?" Katsuki asked frowning, but he fished his card anyway. "Well, it's payment day, so might as well."

"Yeah, of course," the man replied and waved to his assistant to close Katsuki's weekly bill while they talked. "I want to talk to you about the kids."

"Are they causing any trouble?" Katsuki asked, already thinking of a million reasons why the subject was brought, but Lee shook his head.

"Not exactly," he said quickly. "It's been quite the experience, having them over the past months, Bakugo, it really has been, and we'd like to keep helping them, but the restaurant is not the best place for them to eat at. The clients…"

"Let me guess," Katsuki said bitterly. "They're complaining about street kids in their sacred place while they eat?" Lee nodded embarrassed and Katsuki scoffed. "People are so fucking predictable."

"I know they're paying, the children," the man said frankly, and he was fast to give him an option. "I mean, you're paying. But if we could find someplace else for them to be accommodated, it'd be better for everyone. I could send the food over, and you don't even have to pay for the delivery. They could eat at better times, too, earlier, instead of waiting for the place to be empty. Think about it, Bakugo."

Yeah, he'd thought about sending the kids to eat somewhere else too, but every non-profit Bakugo visited in the region was working on their limit and couldn't accept more kids. He wasn't even sure if those kids would _want_ to go to a non-profit in the first place. He only just began to find their files and study their cases, and he still was working on convincing most of them to go back to school.

"Debit, right?" the cashier asked and Bakugo nodded absently.

"Katsuki?" someone called, poking his shoulder, and he turned around in the direction of the voice. To his surprise, he met with golden eyes and a semi-wet blonde hair of a woman a head shorter than him, her pouty mouth curved in a smirk. "Holy shmokes, it _is_ you!"

"Camie!" he exclaimed smiling and she unceremoniously threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. "Holy shit, what are you doing here? Got lost?"

"Yes and no," she answered, still hugging him, hands pressing at his shoulders. "Damn, you feel _fine_."

Before he could stop it, he chuckled and they stepped back to look at each other better. She looked fine too, he'd have to tell her.

"How long has it been?"

"Years," she said. "Last time I saw you I was shipping to Congo."

"Exactly. Holy shit, Camie, that was like…"

"Five years ago? I saw you rewarded my intern with a freaking agency."

Katsuki rolled his eyes.

"She deserved it. Don't tell her I said it."

Camie laughed, not even bothering to cover her mouth, and waved him off.

"Ah, Katsu-bae, still a softie."

"Take that back!" he demanded and she laughed more. "How did you end up here anyway? I see the rain caught you."

"Yeah," she said flicking her hair over her shoulder. "I was passing by. Did you know I closed my agency?"

"Wasn't it temporary?" Katsuki asked frowning. Camie shook her head no.

"I thought it would be, but now I don't think I'll open it again. After I returned from Congo, Katsuki… I was changed. The experience was… wow."

"That good?" he said crossing his arms. She nodded.

"Their idea of heroism and use of quirks is just so interesting. And they have a completely different system compared to ours. There aren't agencies like we have here. Everything is military and police based, and the heroes, they are never in the same place for too long. So when I came back I decided to try it out, that itinerant thing. Been doing a lot of traveling in my own country, and it's been a neat experience."

"That how you ended up here?"

"Yeah. First I check the neighborhood or town off duty, just to take a look, you know. And then I go to the police to know which agencies to contact to offer my help. Sometimes they could use a hand, sometimes they don't need it, so I move on to the next. The longest I've been settled since I started doing this was a couple of months."

"That sounds rock and roll."

"You bet."

"Mr. Bakugo, your chit," Lee said offering a sheet of paper to him and Katsuki made a face.

"I told you we don't need to do that," he said, but accepted the chit anyway, folding it in four and putting it in his pocket.

"Chit?" Camie said confused. "Wait, you're the hero paying for their meals?" she asked a thumb pointing at the kids a few tables down. Katsuki looked over her shoulder and saw that most kids were looking at them, their plates already clean. "They were telling me about you! But didn't say your name."

"Oh, were they? I thought they didn't talk with outsiders," he said the last part louder, so they would hear him. Punk asses. "Seriously, it took me weeks to get them to trust me."

"That's 'cause you have a _reputation_ , love," she said lightly punching his arm and he growled. "See? Anyway, they said you pay for their meals, but no dessert? What kind of monster-"

"Them little shits," he mumbled and she laughed, waving him off.

"Don't worry, I paid for their shortcake today. Will pay. How much was it?"

Katsuki looked over at the kids again as Camie paid and the older ones were making kissy faces at them, so he growled again to try and intimidate them, but it only seemed to amuse them more and now they were doing kissy noises too.

Fucking children. The only one not provoking them was Setora, who didn't even bother to look in their direction. He only as much as smiled when Poky said something to him. Bakugo frowned and poked Camie.

"You said you talked to the kids, right?" he asked and she nodded. "Even that little shit Blue Dragon?"

"Yeah, though he's really quiet. Why?"

"Doesn't he… seem familiar?"

"Huh?" she said turning around to look at the kid again, and she frowned, tapping a finger on her chin as she thought it over. "I don't know."

"Come on," Katsuki said getting closer to her from behind and talking low. "What other blue-eyed, white haired bastard with a fire quirk do we know?"

"He has a fire quirk?" Camie asked surprised and he hummed in confirmation. "Do you mean Shoto?"

"Maybe," he said thoughtfully. "But the kid is thirteen and I doubt Icyhot has the balls to have a love affair in college."

"He got married in college, didn't he?"

"I guess. What I'm saying is that he definitely didn't have kids, and that brother of his didn't get on any pussy ever."

"Natsuo?" Camie asked looking up at him and they exchanged a look. "I didn't know you knew he was gay."

"Everyone knows he's gay," he replied looking into her eyes. "Anyway. We know that his sister got married when we were in high school, and…"

He closed his mouth and frowned thinking it over. Maybe…

"Do you think Endeavour…?" she asked and he shook his head no.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm tripping."

"Hm…" she hummed and bopped his nose. "Soft."

"Shut up!" Katsuki said stepping back and she laughed again. It then hit him. "Hey, what are you going to do?"

"Now? I was just waiting for the rain to stop and then I was going to walk to the train station. I'm actually staying in a neighbor city, watching the region and stuff."

"Oh. Hm…" he looked over the window just to make sure it still was pouring, and then looked at her again. "Well, I'm afraid to tell you the rain won't stop anytime soon. _But_ ," Katsuki quickly added. "I live right on the other block. You can come over and take a shower, I can put your clothes to dry and we can catch up. And then I can drive you to the train station; I have a car, you know?"

"Oh, you have a car. Do you hate the environment?" she asked and he made a face. "I'm kidding."

"It sure got more use when I was in Tokyo, but," he shrugged. "Whatever. What do you say?"

Camie looked around and out the window too, and then she mirrored his shrug.

"What the hell, am I right?"

"Yeah! I only have one umbrella, though."

"It's okay, I'm already wet."

They said goodbye to the people in the restaurant, Katsuki assuring the Lees that he would think about something to help them out with their customers' problem after asking for a couple of days to do so, and then he and Camie walked shoulder to shoulder under the umbrella getting half wet under the rain until they got to his house.

"It really is close," Camie commented when they stopped in front of the gate and he nodded opening the lock and letting her go up the stairs first. "Where's the car?"

"There," he said pointing at the side door. "You can shower and then I'll give you a tour."

"Okay!"

They took off their shoes and left them right by the door, and then Katsuki pointed the way to the bathroom, told her where to find fresh towels and where his bedroom was; he said he'd leave some clean clothes for her on the bed, and that she could put her wet clothes on top of the clothes basket for him to put them to dry.

As she showered, he put water to boil and chose a few mint leaves from his kitchen's mini-garden to prepare an aromatic tea. Most of the designed things in his house had been Eri's idea, but the small garden with variable herbs in the kitchen had been on him, a memory taken from summers at uncle's farm in Hokkaido back when he was little.

Katsuki opened the kitchen's window to let the little light from outside invade the room, and then he opened the balcony's doors too, letting in – along with the light – the perfume of the lime tree. Right then, he wasn't getting any fruits from it, but it still smelled wonderful. Since the tree came straight from the Bakugo's garden, it already was at its peak health, and he couldn't wait to pick his limes in November.

He heard the shower close right when he put the tea in two mugs, and then when Camie moved from bathroom to bedroom, he got her clothes and headed to the laundry, put them to dry like he said he would. When he knocked on the door and she told him to come in, he found her in front of his mirror brushing her hair.

"You don't happen to have a blow dryer, do you?" she asked and he shook his head no, entering in the room and offering her a mug. She was wearing one of his sweatpants and a Punisher tee that was too big for her, much like she did when she spent _that_ afternoon at his house back in the day.

"It's on my shopping list, don't worry."

"Is it?" she said, and they both laughed. She put the brush down and focused on her tea. "You found a lovely place to live."

"Yeah, but it came with a price," he said. "No wonder it was so cheap, the apartment itself was brand new, but downstairs? I had to fix everything, you have no idea."

"I hope you'll show me."

"I will, I will."

She drank some tea, and then put the mug down on the dresser so she could continue brushing her hair. She was almost done already – her hair being straight and just over her shoulders – but then she stopped and pointed at a photo attached to his mirror.

"You were a cute baby."

"The fuck you talking about, I'm still cute!"

"No," Camie said looking at him. "You are handsome. This, excuse me," she detached the photo. "Is cute."

Truth was, there were plenty of photos around his mirror – photos of Katsuki with his parents and Eri, photos of his sister getting her middle school diploma, photos from school and college and his former agency – but he knew exactly what photo she was talking about without even needed to check.

It was a photo of him and Deku when they were maybe two years old sitting side by side at someone's birthday, sharing a blanket. They were very little and Katsuki didn't remember that photo or day at all, but he had found that same blanket well packed at the family's storage unity when he had to put (and remove) his things there, after the breakup.

"He gave it to me, you know," he said when he saw Camie turn the photo around and read the caption on the back, and he walked over to stay behind her again. "That fucking nerd. Everyone in our class got a recent photo from a trip or training, but I got this one. I guess because we dated from way back, I don't know. Won't ever know. For a long time, I thought it was the last thing he gave me, but…"

"You're talking about Midoriya, right?" she asked and he nodded. "No one from outside of U.A. really knows what happened."

Katsuki didn't exactly answer her question, though he knew what she was asking.

"Yeah, he gave each one of us a pic with something written on the back; that was mine. Even some teachers got one, and one person that wasn't in our class. And I thought that was it, but the bastard," he chuckled, shaking his head. "He sent us notebooks he had written about us, with his thoughts about our quirks and combat skills and shit. I think it arrived rather soon at home, but my parents held it for a while, until Christmas, to give it to me. I think they waited to make sure I would be okay."

"Does that have anything to do with the pills I saw in the bathroom?" she asked and he nodded. "Do you want to tell me…?"

He thought it over.

"Maybe not yet. But I'll let you know it's ugly."

"Would it even be called friendship if we weren't willing to deal with the ugly that comes along, though?"

"Wow," he said low, and she immediately realized what was coming. "You are _so lame_."

"Shut up," Camie replied shoving a hand on his face to push him away and Katsuki burst out laughing.

It was so refreshing to have her there, even though they didn't even get the chance to talk properly yet. He had a feeling that she would brighten his week a bit, especially if they had the chance to work together while she stayed over. He knew about this case where drugs were being sold to junior high students and he was sure she could help crack it.

"Come on, crazy, get your tea. Let's tour," he said taking the hairbrush from her hand and setting it down again. With minimal protest, Camie did what he said, grabbing her mug just before he could pull her out of its reach.

He showed her his house office still under construction, piles of books out of order on the floor and all over the table, a notebook dangerously dangling on top of one of those piles, no colors whatsoever on the walls yet; then came the laundry, where he assured her clothes would come out soft and dry. They then moved to the kitchen, where they refilled their mugs with tea and she stole a piece of Gruyere from his fridge to accompany her on the way down.

Katsuki loaned her Eri's slippers and together they descended to ground level. Just like every other lock in his house, the door to the garage could be opened with a code and a digital — work of Iida Mei, he informed her — and Camie's jaw dropped when she stepped inside, the lights flicking on in one go to show the colorful, lively room.

"Awesome," she said under her breath, and Katsuki couldn't help but smirk.

"I know, right? Cost me half of my monthly check."

"That bad, huh?"

"You have no idea," he said walking to her left and she followed him, adding her commentaries as they went. "Another kitchen, everything needed to be fixed or bought."

"Extra."

"With a barbecue grill I didn't get the chance to use yet."

"We most certainly can fix that ASAP."

"Another laundry outside — Eri's idea again — and a larger garden, that was on me," he pointed at the window and she looked over. They couldn't go outside because of the rain, but she could see from there. "My car."

"Isn't it the car you got in college?" Camie asked opening the driver's door and slipping inside.

"The one and only."

She looked up at him, her hands on the steering wheel.

"You're something else, Katsu-bae."

"I'm well aware," he said smirking, and then he pointed to her right. "There's another bathroom there, for when I'm too dirty to go straight upstairs or whatever. That boring box is my new agency."

"Where?" she asked turning around.

The former two rooms on the front of the garage were now a single office — Ground Zero's agency — and the place he'd been spending more time inside after the upstairs' kitchen. Camie got out of the car and followed him to the packed room, one slim table taking most of the wall, large bulletproof windows to the street, and half-filled shelves completing the look. On the table, a pile of files, a family photo and a bunch of post-its that would soon be part of his mural.

"This looks nice," she said walking around the small space watching everything carefully. She stopped in front of one of the shelves, the one that had more books and notebooks in it, checking the spines. "You're such a nerd."

"Do you want to fucking go?"

Camie only smirked. On her peripheral vision, she saw Katsuki put two cell phones on top of the table and start to sort through a few files and then put them in the archive by the table. Her eyes fell on a different handwriting, KACCHAN written in uppercase letters on the spine of a beaten down notebook.

"Is this…" she pulled the notebook out of the shelf — it gave out easily — and then looked at him for confirmation. He nodded, allowing her to read it. The first pages alone made her jaw drop. "Oh. Katsuki, this is from junior high."

"Yeah. It's like a fucking scrapbook he had of me. Kinda embarrassing."

"He admired you," she said, quickly looking over the pages. "So many details. Did you use any?"

"I do, sometimes," he admitted and she raised her eyebrows surprised. "They're actually… useful. When I'm feeling rusty, I look for something there."

"You keep it in your office," Camie said impressed, closing the notebook and putting it back on the shelf. "Who'd even think. What about the kids? You said you were getting to know them."

"Yeah," Katsuki pointed at the pile of files on the table she'd seen earlier. "I'm trying to study their cases. You know, in my free time, because being the new hero in town, these people are abusing on my schedule."

"Why don't you use the good old "I'm the #3 hero and I'll do whatever the fuck want" Bakugo attitude, though?"

"I want to," he said honestly. "But not yet. Got to figure out what the fuck I want to do first."

"Meaning?" she asked frowning, shoulder against the shelf to look at him better.

"Meaning I really have no fucking clue. I'm a hero, that's a fact, I just…"

"Need a purpose?" she suggested. "Like my itinerant heroing?"

"Something like that, yeah," he said reluctantly. "I don't know. I just want to start over, but I'm not sure from where."

"Well, you already got a nice house in a suburban city," she offered. "And you're feeding a bunch of kids! And you think one of those kids might come from a big family, how many shades of cray is that?"

"I don't even fucking know about that."

"Do you have his file?" Camie asked reaching for the pile.

"I do, Setora Ao."

"Ao?" she exclaimed. "I can't believe his name is actually blue…"

The files were in alphabetical order, so it was easy for her to find it. She opened the cover and faced the photo of a young boy with white and blond hair, eyes as shocking a blue as she remembered, and a subtle dimple on his chin. Camie lifted the photo to read the file — Setora Ao, born thirteen years ago in a coastal city of Japan, mother (Setora Moe) died at childbirth, father unknown, no other close relatives. Quirk: flame.

Katsuki already knew that data by heart. Ao stayed in an orphanage up to age eight, ran away for the first time when he was five, was put in a foster home once, twice, three times before being directed to a facility the previous year, when he made his last escape. The system kind of knew where he was, knew that he was on the streets, but could never capture him — the kid was slippery that way — and Bakugo wouldn't be the one to help them, even though it was part of his job.

"Holy shit, he looks just like Endeavour in this picture!" Camie exclaimed showing him the picture — one of Setora posing alongside other foster kids when he was about ten — and Katsuki nodded. "Exact same eyes."

"That's what I thought too," he said. "I kept thinking about IcyHot, but the colors don't match, you know? White is for ice, red is for fire, and that kid has white and blond hair. But Todoroki's blue eyes come from Endeavour, fire, left side. And I swear Setora has the same blue eyes. Camie, am I really fucking tripping here?"

"I don't know, bro," she said.

"You worked with them, didn't you? The Todorokis?" he asked and she nodded. "Tell me what you know about them."

"Well… Unless you think Enji had a love child or something…"

"I don't," Katsuki said firmly. "Red hair. There's a photo of Setora's mom in the file, she was blonde."

Quickly, Camie ruffled the pages to find Setora Moe's photo — it was a rather thick file, to be honest — and indeed, she was blonde, this kind of sunny color that everyone would think was fake. It made her hum.

"Okay… so the siblings," she said, thinking about the Todorokis. "I worked with Natsuo and you're right, he's gay. Don't think he's ever been near pussy ever in his life, so he's out. Fuyumi has been an Iida since I graduated, they have lovely children, did you see them?"

"No, thank you."

"You're such a grumpy cat, Baku-bae, I swear to God. Anyway, they have a boy and a girl… about Setora's age. No, we know who the mother is, I think we can count her out too. Now, Shoto… I don't know." She checked Ao's birth date again, thinking about it. "He still was in college when the kid was born. _Could_ be a love child, but I don't know… I worked with Momo, and she told me their break up was kinda messy, very sad and shit."

Camie pouted, putting the open file down and staring at the photos — Setora as a toddler, his mother, the one at the foster house — and Katsuki supposed she realized that something wasn't adding up, like he thought so too.

"And then, Shoto met Tessa around that time I think," she said, pointing at the month of Setora's birth.

"Who the fuck is Tessa?" Katsuki asked confusedly, and Camie glared at him.

"His wife, you black-hearted bastard!" she replied offended. "Didn't you go to the wedding? Or the funeral?"

Maybe he had gotten an invite or something, but as usual, he didn't reply to them. If he thought long and hard, he could remember Eijiro trying to convince him to get to the wedding with him, but Katsuki refused to leave the house at the time; he wasn't sure what happened if they were invited for a funeral. Maybe they were, maybe only Kirishima was. He was pretty sure his mother and/or sister sent something, but he wouldn't swear on it.

"Shit, she died?"

"Katsuki!" Camie exclaimed louder, a hand to her chest. "Yes! Fucking seven year ago! She was such a lovely person, helped me so much with college stuff. Shoto loved her a lot, you know?"

"I do not. They didn't have any kids, then?"

"No. Talked about it, but gave up on the idea because of her illness. It'd take a huge toll on her, a pregnancy, and they weren't sure about adopting just yet. What other option do we even have at this point?"

"Well…" Katsuki said avoiding eye contact and Camie side-eyed him.

"Do you think…"

"I'm not saying I think," he pointed out. "But."

"You have to call Shoto."

"I can't."

"I see two phones on this table, Katsuki, how come you _can't_?"

"I literally can't!" he exclaimed, hands in the air. "First of all, I don't have his number. Second of all, these kids are just beginning to trust me, Cams. Like, literally last week I managed to make Poky send the younger ones to school. And I'm _this_ close to taking them to a doctor to see if they are healthy, starting with the little projects of human beings. If I call on reinforcements to maybe, probably take one of them away, then they will all think I'm trying to be rid of them, like every single motherfucker in this country is trying to be rid of them, and they will bolt in a heartbeat."

Camie was pouting, but he knew he had a good argument there because she didn't interrupt him.

"So you really think he's a Todoroki," she said carefully and Katsuki sighed. "What were even the odds."

"I don't even know, Camie," he replied tiredly, sitting on the single chair of the office. "This is some crazy shit."

"I agree."

She closed Setora's file and put it aside, picked up the next one of a beautiful little girl with a mesmerizing smile, brown curls and too smart yellow eyes. Poky.

"Kojima Misaki?" she said raising an eyebrow. "That's a cute name."

"I know, can you fucking believe it? That piece of work of a girl."

They looked over the kids' files for a while, as the rain continued to pour down. Katsuki still didn't have all of them, but he got a hold on most of the kids' information, and already visited a couple of them. He pointed to Camie those who lived in riskier areas, those he thought were more fragile, and the tough ones too, the backbone to the little ones.

"Tominaga is a tough cookie, Setora is the head, but I believe Poky and Sasaki are the leaders," he told her.

"His the visual center," Camie joked and Katsuki rolled his eyes. "If you take out their head…"

"I believe Poky will hold them together anyway. She's strong that way."

Camie, who was sitting on his desk with her legs crossed, elbow on her knee, chin on her hand, smiled, Miura Tito's file open on her legs, and Katsuki couldn't help but feel unease with her smile as if she knew something that he didn't. He didn't like to not know things.

"What?"

"You really like those kids, don't you?" she said softly and he rolled his eyes. "And by asking, I'm actually affirming. I can tell because you know their names and shit. And they like you a lot, they really do. They were telling me about you during lunch, but didn't say your name; they said you told them you don't want the popularity that comes with charity, you just want to help. That's noble. But again, you've always been noble. People just fail to see it."

Katsuki shook his head tiredly.

"Now, who's soft?"

"What are you talking about? I've always been soft!"

He smirked.

"Yeah, I remember."

With a discreet tint on her cheeks, Camie shook her head and looked out the window for a while, and then her eyes fell to the file on her legs. She picked up Miura's photo, looked at it closer.

"You think the Lees will stop feeding the children if you don't find another place for them soon?"

"I hope not. I hope they could find another way," he said honestly and she nodded.

"You have a lot of space," she said casually. "If you got some folding chairs and tables, they could eat here, you know?"

Katsuki was silent. Both Eri and his father had pointed it out already, but he really wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do. Would he be too close to their case if he allowed them in his garage? Even if it was just for a couple of hours per day? Was he ready for it?

"I can help out," she offered, taking his silence as a reason to keep going. "I told you I'll stay around for a while, and I can help you out. If they see other heroes helping out on a daily basis, maybe they won't retaliate when you give Todoroki that call."

"I don't think I'll call."

"I think you will," Camie said quickly. "And I think you know what to do, but you're in need of a little push. I'm a great pusher."

She was so annoying, he couldn't help but smile.

"What do you say?" she insisted and he shrugged.

"What the hell."

Bakugo talked to the kids the following day. Between teases about his love life, and indignation about not being able to go to the restaurant anymore, they agreed to meet him for lunch and dinner at his place, promising to behave and to obey his orders. His car would be there, but it was off limits, as well as his office, but they could use his bathroom and kitchen, and they were to wash the dishes they used. They couldn't go upstairs but could go to the garden, as long as no one tried to damage his plants. Seemed easy enough to pull off.

As promised, Camie helped him. Together, they combined their hero schedule in a way that at least one of them could be home when it was time for the children's meal, and two weeks later, Eri joined them too.

"I'm out of Shinso's agency," she announced first thing, showing up with a couple of suitcases. Katsuki stared at her.

"Why for?"

"Because I want to work with you, big brother," she said, dropping her bags on the floor and stepping closer, palms pressed together ready to beg. "Please, let me work in your agency and help with the kids, I promise I'll do a freaking motherfucking great job, please, Kacchan, please!"

"Why do you want to work with me? Did you break up with Kota?"

"No." She said pouting defiantly. He narrowed his eyes.

"I don't have extra rooms."

"You could, though. But I don't need an extra room, I already found an apartment to live."

"You did, huh?"

"Yep. I just need an agency. Brother, please, let me work with you!" Eri begged, grabbing the front of his T-shirt. It was almost time for lunch, and soon the kids would knock on his front door. He didn't even start to set the tables yet, and Camie was patrolling at the moment, so no help on the way.

"Why do you want to work with me, midget?" he asked. "We have total opposite styles."

"But we have things in common," she said dropping her hands. "And I have a million ideas, Kacchan, just… let me be here with you. You let Camie stay."

"It's really hard to be rid of Camie, you know?" Katsuki told her, but Eri didn't seem to process his words, she just kept talking.

"And I helped fix this place. I'd like to see it be put to good use. I want to be part of things you're building, big brother. Let me be in your life."

It was hard to be rid of Eri too. Katsuki said that he allowed her to stay because they needed to get started on the tables, but in all honesty, he liked to have his sister around, liked to spend time with her. That had been the main reason he let her design his house when he moved; when she was adopted, he already was leaving for college and barely had any chance to spend time with her, but now that they were both adults, they could enjoy it better.

Besides, the kids absolutely loved Eri, hero Reset. She was young and fresh in their minds, they saw her on TV at the sports festivals she participated, they read about her personal life in gossip magazines and knew everything about her. And most of all, they were so shocked to find out that she was his sister.

"Oh, so Water Hose is the boyfriend you don't like!" Poky exclaimed pointing at Bakugo when she met his sister and fangirled all over her. "Oh my, that tea!"

"The only reason brother doesn't like Kota is because they're so alike," Eri had said, blinking sassily at him when the kids weren't looking. Not that she didn't know he wasn't a fan of her boyfriend, she was well aware and she didn't care.

Like Camie, Eri found a place in a neighbor city, a tiny, boxy apartment for two that she shared with Kota, who was putting together his own agency with a couple of friends from U.A.. She didn't want to work with them. What she really wanted was to be with Katsuki in his super cool agency and his lot of loud kids, and boy if she didn't say the truth when she said she was full of ideas.

Young and hungry, Eri managed to find partnerships in local hospitals to start examining the children in her first month. Before all the leaves had fallen, twelve children were examined, medicated and taken care of. Just like Katsuki, she was an organizer, and with their different approaches and with the help of Camie, they managed to visit everyone who had a home who'd been eating their food in that bunch of kids — seven little ones total, including Poky, who lived with her drunk dad, and Sasaki, whose mother was constantly busy with work and other three little kids.

"Before you came along," Mrs. Sasaki told Katsuki when he visited them, the small house nothing but a packed box in the slum. "Kent helped me feed the babies. I'm sure he gave his food to them, sometimes to me. But then you started offering food, and now all of my children can eat. Thank you so much, Mr. Bakugo."

She bowed low, the kids mirroring her movements, and he stood there unsure of what to do. The littlest kid, nose running like anything he'd ever seen, clanged to his leg and didn't let go until he patted his head, bright green eyes like his big brother's (or like Izuku's) staring at Katsuki mesmerized, and then laughing excitedly.

They were so little.

Katsuki promised them to send a basic basket every month if the kids were sent to school and brought him their grades, and she delivered without fault.

When he got home that day, he showered, letting the warm water cleanse his body. Fall was almost ending and those kids… what was he going to do with those kids? Most of them lived in the streets, some abandoned building with no heaters and no hot water, sleeping together like a litter of rats to keep warm.

He cleaned the fog off the mirror and looked at his reflection feeling useless, and then he opened the cabinet and stared at the bottles of medicine he had there. Katsuki's schedule had been so crazy that he'd been forgetting to take his anti-depressants maybe for the past three days. He wondered if he should take three of each at a time now, since he felt extra shitty, but it probably wasn't the best idea, so he took one capsule from each bottle and swallowed them down with tap water. Two small balls of chemistry to keep him in check.

He needed to see something good happen, and he needed it soon. Thankfully, he had Eri around now.

"Setora is next to go to the doctor. He and Tominaga are the only two left," she told him a few days later. His small office was extra packed with three people in it. "What do you want to do?"

"Maybe it's time for that phone call," Camie suggested. "Eri's been talking about bringing another hero to talk to the kids, you could use that excuse."

"IcyHot doesn't know how to talk to kids," Katsuki replied. "And I still don't have his number."

"But you have Yao-Momo's," Eri suggested. "She most definitely has his number."

Like Kirishima, Momo made sure to know what everyone from their class had been up to. She was the one Katsuki worked with more often than anyone else, and they even had a couple of classes together in college, before she dropped out. There was also the cheating episode; basically, they kept in contact rather often. You know, as… friends. Which was really weird, but also nice.

Katsuki checked the time — early morning — and then fished his phone from his pocket to look for Momo's number. He dialed under Eri and Camie's ever-watching eyes and it rang for a long time before Momo picked it up.

" _Hello?_ " she greeted breathily and he frowned.

"Ponytail, you busy?" he asked. She always greeted saying the name of the caller, so everything was kind of weird, and they barely exchanged a couple of words so far.

" _Oh, hey, Katsuki! A little bit, but talk._ "

"Uh…" he said and looked at the ladies, who nodded in incentive. "I was wondering if you have Todoroki's number. I need to talk to him."

" _Yeah, sure, hold on_ ," she said, and instead of the ruffling of looking for the number somewhere, or telling him that she'd send it via text, he heard a muffled talk that made no sense at all, and then-

" _Todoroki speaking_."

Bakugo almost dropped the phone, so fast he sat up.

"What the fuck!" he exclaimed. "What the- oh, my fucking God, are you shitting me?"

" _Bakugo, you wanted to talk to me?_ " Todoroki said, ever the polished one. Katsuki started to laugh.

" _Now_? You guys are fucking _NOW_?"

"What?" Camie asked confused and he shook his head. On the other side of the line, Todoroki was saying something to Momo about not being sure if it really was a pressing matter, that call.

"No, wait! What are your plans for the next couple of days?"

" _It's too late to ask me on a date, Bakugo,_ " he replied. Katsuki rolled his eyes at the attempted joke.

"I'm serious. I think I have something that might interest you. Interest your family, maybe. Probably. But I'm not sure yet, and I need you to figure it out."

There was a moment of silence on the line, and Katsuki waited for it. He knew what was coming.

" _Are you really saying you need my help?_ "

Sighing dramatically, Katsuki shot daggers at the ladies in his office who were watching his every move, and then he spoke.

"Sort of," he said. "I have a suspicion and maybe you can help me solve it. _Emphasis on the maybe_. It has to do with your family, and perhaps… your brother."

" _Natsuo?_ " Todoroki asked confused.

"No," he answered.

Silence again. Later, when they'd arrive, Bakugo would tell them the story of Setora Moe, the waitress at the port who told her grandaunt — an aunt too old, living in an elderly home — about this man she met, Toya, and how she believed he was the one; and he'd tell them about the nurse who stayed with Moe all through her rough delivery, hearing her talk about how she wanted her son to be called Ao because of his father's beautiful eyes and beautiful quirk, that she hoped he would be born with a quirk, unlike her.

He knew all of those things from a lot of digging, had written down on Setora's file everything he discovered, but maybe Camie was right, it was time to stop digging and start doing. He would never be sure without a Todoroki. If they did the DNA and it'd come out negative, then they would be rid of that option already. If it came out positive…

" _I'll be there tonight_ ," Todoroki finally said, and not only he arrived like promised, he went with Momo by his side.

They talked over a dinner prepared by Katsuki (like old times), the six of them — Katsuki, Todoroki, Momo, Eri, Kota and Camie — tracing a strategy of what to do and how to approach the children. After lunch, Momo would talk a bit about her quirk and how school helped her get better at it while Katsuki would go with Setora to the doctor to do the same exams everyone did, plus one.

They didn't tell him about that plus one, because it would be tricky. How do you tell someone that they want to do a DNA test because he could be part of one of Japan's richest and more influenced families, but maybe he was not? So they only acted as if it was another blood test and waited.

Todoroki used the excuse to donate blood for his sample, and while Setora passed with the ophthalmologist (Katsuki was 100% sure the kid's eyesight was really poor), they waited.

"Show him, kid," Katsuki said while they waited for the glasses to be made (four degrees in each eye, he knew it!), the three of them had some time to bond.

"What?" Setora asked annoyed. He didn't want to stay or wear glasses, but judging by how long it was taking for things to get ready, he'd leave in time for dinner, and it meant another hour or so in Bakugo's company. He was so tired of him.

"Your flames. Show him."

Bored, Setora held his hand out, palm up, and the flames spread around his hand not to cause any problem, and Todoroki raised his eyebrows, smirked even.

"Nice," he said, and then held his left hand out too, next to his, similar flames showing up, as if people didn't know about his quirk already. Todoroki mastered that kind of hell flame when they were finishing high school if Bakugo remembered correctly.

"Mr. Todoroki Shoto," a nurse called, and IcyHot bolted up to get his results almost the exact moment another doctor approached Katsuki and Setora. The kid extinguished his flames right away.

"Mr. Bakugo, I believe this should be in your possession," she said offering him the envelope with all of Setora's results, and then she turned to the boy offering a smaller package. "And this is yours."

His glasses. They were a simple model, black frames of a strong material. Katsuki didn't know where those glasses would have to go to and what they'd have to go through, so it was best to give him something resilient.

"Can we go now?" Setora asked standing up and Bakugo shook his head no.

"Put them on first."

"Why?"

"The glasses are ready?" Todoroki asked and Bakugo nodded. "Let me see how you look."

"No!" the boy protested, and the two adults exchanged a look.

"Do you mean to tell me, you little shit," Katsuki said getting up and crossing his arms threateningly. "That you let this okay guy here IcyHot bastard buy you, out of his very own pocket, a pair of glasses that you _need_ , because you're basically legally blind, and you _won't_ fucking wear them?"

Setora made a face, trying to intimidate him, and he growled, but no one was better at this game than Katsuki.

"Fine!" the boy exclaimed and put the glasses on. He blinked a few times, unable to hide the surprise at being able to see clearly, and then he focused on Bakugo. "Damn, you're uglier in high resolution."

"The fuck you just said to me?" Katsuki replied at the same time Todoroki scoffed.

"I already like you, kid," he said resting a hand on top of his head and guiding him to the exit, Katsuki following them close by. "Come on, we'll be late for dinner. I heard Momo wanted to cook a family meal."

"Oh, God, I hope Eri stops her," Katsuki said honestly and Shoto smiled.

"You all studied together, right?" Setora asked, even though he knew the answer. They already had asked that during lunch, and Momo was more than happy to answer them. "Must be weird now, seeing each other."

"Setora," Todoroki said frankly. "It's always weird when Bakugo and I are in the same room."

Eri was on patrol, so it was only Katsuki and Camie with Todoroki and Momo at the garage having dinner. They didn't cook, but chose a Korean barbecue through an app and ate while looking at the closed envelope with the DNA results. The elephant in the room was only addressed after everyone was full.

"So?" Katsuki asked. "You're gonna open it or nah?"

The envelope had been sitting by Shoto's plate, and at Bakugo's words, he rested a hand on top of it considering. He exchanged a look with Momo, who nodded in encouragement and then he picked it up, opened it carefully, but before he could see the result, he closed it again and fished something from his pocket. A letter.

"Before I came, I talked to my mother," Todoroki told them. "I said you thought you had found out something about Toya and she gave me this. After he went MIA, we didn't know how to contact him, though we suspected Hawks knew where he was. Well, so did mother. They'd been writing to each other for quite some time, and this was one of the last letters he sent."

He set the letter down, still folded.

"Toya told mother he met a girl and that when his current job was over, they'd build their own family," he continued. "But then he never talked about it again. We have no idea what happened to him, or her."

"So fucking what?" Katsuki asked anxiously, and Camie elbowed him.

Todoroki took a deep breath and slid the letter to the side, opened the results again and read them silently, Momo keeping a respectful distance. Katsuki was about to ask again what it said when he swallowed and looked up.

"It's positive," he said, and he didn't seem surprised about it.

"I fucking knew it," Katsuki said under his breath.

"He's my nephew," Todoroki said passing the results to Momo.

"Okay, that's good, right?" Camie asked. "He can have a home now."

"Depends on what you want to do with that information," Bakugo said looking at Todoroki, whose face was as inscrutable as always. "If you don't want to take him with you, I'll understand, and we can never talk about this again. I'll just have to find somewhere else for him to stay. But if you do-"

"I do," Shoto interrupted. "I think he should come with me. My mother… she'd like to meet him. And Fuyumi, Gosh, she'll be so thrilled." He looked at Katsuki, then, the closest he'd ever been to tears. "I can't believe you found him."

"It was pure chance," Bakugo said frowning, never a big fan of sentimentalities. "How are you going to tell him?"

"I can do that tomorrow," Todoroki answered, still looking at him. "I'll need you there, he trusts you."

Well, of course Katsuki would be there. He nodded.

"I _can_ give you a provisional guard of him, you know? And then we can work from there."

"If he wants to come with us," Shoto said, taking Momo's hand in his. "Then that'd be great."

That night, Camie stayed over. They put on a movie that they didn't watch because they couldn't stop talking. She had visited Poky's home the week before and couldn't stop thinking about it, and they still had to figure out what to do with the street kids. Those children needed homes, real homes, and the fact that they found one for Setora, though it was great, only made it more urgent to help the others.

"You think he'll go?" she asked and he shook his head. He didn't know.

"I hope so."

They woke up with the doorbell being incessantly ringed and sleepy as ever Katsuki went to check it out. To his surprise, Miura and Setora were there, carrying a weak Tominaga.

"What the fuck is going on?" Katsuki asked going down the stairs, nothing but a robe on, and when he got closer he saw that Tominaga was silently crying.

"She won't tell us what's wrong," Setora said carrying most of her weight. "She's been like this the whole night."

Camie, who was right behind Katsuki, took a good look at the girl and then tapped his shoulder.

"Can you run a hot bath for her?" she asked him and for a moment he was confused, but then he nodded.

He opened the gate, allowing the children in, and Camie checked the girl's temperature and then her pulse. Tominaga groaned in pain, hid her face on Setora's chest.

"Hey, baby," Camie said softly. "It's okay, you're going to have a nice bath, and you'll be alright, okay? Can you go up the stairs? I'll help you."

"I can carry her," Setora offered, but Camie stopped him with a hand on his shoulder."

"It's okay. You two will clean up as well."

"Will we, now?" Miura asked and she nodded, pointed at the side door.

"You know the drill, right?" she said firmly. "Towels in the cabinet. No funny business. And then you can come up for breakfast. I promise she'll be all right."

"Can we use hot water?" Miura asked and Camie smiled, already helping Tominaga go up the stairs.

"Of course you can, don't worry."

"Okay! Thanks Ms. Camie!" the boys said together, and then rushed to the garage's bathroom.

It was early, too early, and the tub was only half filled when Camie came in with the girl, who sat on the rem of the tub groaning with pain, Camie saying soothing things to her in her calmest tone.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Katsuki asked and she nodded.

"Leave me to it, will you?" she said and then looked at him. "Two things, though. Breakfast, they are hungry. And the boys are downstairs, you might want to go check and see if they are not destroying everything. Though I don't think they would dare."

"Maybe one of them will, later," he replied and she shook her head trying not to laugh.

"Okay, baby, let's take off those clothes, right?" was the last thing Katsuki heard Camie say before he closed the bathroom's door.

It was the first time one of those kids had come up to his home, and he wasn't sure he liked the idea, but the girl was hurting and Camie seemed to know what she was doing. Instead of worrying about that, he put the kettle on the stove for the tea, and then he started taking everything out of the fridge for the meal. Rice, miso, salmon, kobachi, all to the heater, and he was about to cut the fish when he realized that he was out of mint, so he went downstairs to get some in the garden.

The boys were chatting loudly and laughing in the bathroom, the sound of their voices echoing in the empty garage. Katsuki was familiar with that kind of noise, two and a half years living in dorms made that possible, and that carefree conversation (that seemed to be about… pubic hair?) resurfaced some great memories.

He opened the bathroom door loudly and the boys stopped talking right away. They each had a towel around their waist, and it seemed like the object of their talk was Miura's armpits, that were beginning to show a thin layer of blue hair — if him being with his arms up was any indicative — and they both stared at him terrified.

"Oi, dipshits," Katsuki said pointing a twig of spearmint at them. "Remember I said that Kota brought a box of donated clothes to you?" they nodded. "Why is that box still closed, then? Get yourselves something clean and warm to wear, and it wouldn't hurt if you found something for Juri too. Then, come help me with breakfast."

"Bakugo," Setora called before he could leave. "We really can go upstairs?"

"No, you're going to help me from the sidewalk," he replied, and Miura snorted. "Yes, you can. Just this time. Now go get dressed, it's getting too fucking cold today."

He needed to change into warmer clothes too, but first, he had to make that tea, and then he went to his room, followed close by Camie.

"Everything alright?" he asked finding some sweatpants. She nodded.

"Menstrual cramps, they're particularly hard at the beginning."

"Irc," he said making a face.

"It doesn't help that she's bleeding in that dump they call a home," Camie continued, her voice low; she was standing really close to him, so their conversation wouldn't echo around the house. "I already requested some products for her in the store, they'll deliver them in a few hours. But she'll need to rest somewhere warm."

"Why are you looking at me?" Katsuki asked and she raised her eyebrows. "She's not staying in my bed."

"But she can stay in the sofa. It's just this time."

"Last time I checked, menstruation happens every month."

"Next month, hopefully, she'll be in a different situation," Camie said firmly. "Do you know why she shaved her head?"

"No," he replied. "I asked, but she never answered."

"Did you see her photos?" he nodded. "Pretty little girl, right? On the streets, that's not a good combination. She knew that."

"She cut to pass as one of the boys?" Katsuki asked frowning and Camie nodded.

"But now she had her period, the hair won't help anymore. I vote that next case we focus on is hers."

"I agree."

"Mr. Bakugo?" Miura called carefully, and Katsuki closed his eyes, preparing for more to come before he left the room, now properly dressed. "We bought clothes for Juri."

"Give them to me," Camie said, taking the clothes from the boys. "She'll be out in a sec."

"You two with me," Katsuki said pointing to the kitchen. The room was warm and filled with smells that made the boys sigh. "Wash your hands."

"We just showered," Setora protested.

"Did I fucking stutter?" and for good measure, Katsuki washed his hands too, the boys following suit. "Now, do you know the right way to cut salmon?"

Tominaga didn't eat much, but she drank the soup and managed to swallow a few bites of fish before asking to lay down. Camie made sure that she was all tucked and warm before she joined them again in the kitchen to eat, and halfway through breakfast, Todoroki texted saying that he and Momo were on their way.

Eri arrived shortly, giving Camie the chance to go home, because she had patrolling to do that afternoon, and the two of them exchanged instructions to take care of the girl. They let the kids watch TV until it was lunch time and Lee Jr. arrived with the food, a line of children waiting across the street to enter what they called their safe haven.

And then came Todoroki. Momo treated the children with dessert while the two men headed to Bakugo's office to settle things before they talked to Setora, and then it was time.

"Setora," Katsuki called and the boy looked over at him. "Come here."

"What? Is this about my exams?" he asked from the table, not moving an inch.

"Sort of. Now come," he insisted and the boy sighed, getting up against his will and dragging his feet in their direction.

"I swear I didn't do anything."

"Boy, did I say you did something? Stop nagging and come already," Katsuki said firmly and Setora entered the office, paying no interest to what was around.

"Damn, I was allowed in a lot of forbidden places today," he said as if it was a big deal and then eyed the only available chair of the room (the other was occupied by Todoroki). "Can I sit?"

"You should," Katsuki said. He'd do the talking first. When the boy was comfortable, Katsuki got the file from the closest shelf. "Do you know what this is?"

Setora eyed it suspiciously.

"My social file?"

"Smarter than I thought," Katsuki replied and offered it to him.

"Wait, I can read it?" Setora asked full of hope, and Bakugo nodded.

He took the file with both hands, carefully, as if it was some kind of treasure he didn't know what to do with, and then he opened the first page. There it was, the photo of him as a toddler. Setora gulped and then passed it to the side to read the first page, all that info Katsuki knew by heart. He read slowly, fingertips following the lines, mouth moving along the words. On the next page, a photo of Setora Moe.

"Do you have a photo of her?" Katsuki asked when the boy hesitated to touch the photo, and he nodded without looking at them.

From his jacket pocket, he took out a battered photo of a blonde lady in front of a pier, her hair being blown by the wind and a large smile on her face.

"They gave it to me when I was in the orphanage," he said, his voice awfully small. Turned another page, the photo of the foster home was quickly skipped, and then it was one of Katsuki's reports, the one about the long lost aunt. "You found my great-grandaunt?"

"I did more than that," Katsuki said looking at Todoroki and passing the torch. Setora frowned.

"You know, Ao, can I call you Ao?" Shoto asked and the boy's frown only deepened. He didn't say no, though. "I have a big, problematic family. Four siblings, you know, and a dickhead for a father. I don't remember much about my big brother Toya, but my mom… she found a way to always talk to him. We think he was working as a sailor, and one day he sent her this."

He showed the letter again, but this time he unfolded it and took out a photo, that he handed to Setora.

" _I know I've done a lot of bad things in the past_ ," Todoroki read. " _But mother, things have changed. I can't say I love what I do now, but it's alright, I guess. I get to see Moe whenever I return. I think she's the one. I think we can have something good, really good, and I want to. She's so beautiful, mother, and so sweet, so understanding. When I come back after this job, we'll build our family. I think it's time._ "

Ao was staring at the photo Shoto had given him, his breathing erratic, nervous, and then he stared at them, wide eyes full of questions.

"What the fuck?" he asked.

"You looked awfully familiar, you know?" Katsuki said, directing the conversation like he should do. "The first time I saw you, _I knew_ , but I was never sure."

"We did a DNA test," Todoroki interrupted and Bakugo sighed. "You're my nephew, Toya's son."

"Shut up," Setora exclaimed and Katsuki shook his head.

"Real smooth, Half-N-Half," he said annoyed and then turned to Ao again. "Oi, try and breathe, will ya?"

"You're playing with me!"

"No, we're not," Katsuki said, voice firm, convicted. He put his hands on Setora's shoulders, making the boy look at him. "Breathe. Go on, do it."

It took him a few tries, but Setora's breathing went back to normal eventually, the photo still in his hand. He looked down at it as Katsuki kneeled in front of him, waiting for the right moment to speak again.

"Setora, this is good news," he said. "You have a family that can't wait to meet you. A big family, it is, with cousins and everything. And if I know the Iidas, a bunch of extended family too."

"You have no idea," Todoroki added. "You know Mei had the baby already?"

"Did she, now?" Bakugo asked looking at him and he nodded. Last time he saw Mei, she was sporting a big ass baby bump. Didn't stop working, though.

"Riley. And they are talking about having more."

"Jesus, I swear they'll populate the country by themselves. See?" he said, returning his attention to the child in front of him. "That's the kind of stuff you can care about. Kids' birthdays and remembering everyone's names. You have uncles and aunts and grandparents."

"Endeavour is my grandfather?" Ao asked and Katsuki nodded.

"I worked with him when I finished school, the dude is cool, I guess. And I can't say much about this uncle here, he's kind of a pain in my ass, but I think you'll be able to handle him just fine."

Again, Setora's eyes went from Katsuki to Todoroki, and he looked so conflicted. Maybe they dropped too big a bomb on his lap.

"Look," Katsuki continued. "I know this is a lot to process, but you have an option here. Understand that this is an _option_. You have family. You can go to Tokyo with your uncle and pretty lady Momo, and you can go meet your relatives. You can decide if you like them all by yourself. And if you decide you don't want them — like your father decided he didn't want them — then we'll figure out from there. But I think you should go and at least try. You don't have to run anymore, you can have a home."

"I do have a home," Setora said tearing up. "This is my home."

"No, kid," Katsuki said shaking his head. "This is just a place, and your friends will understand. I'm sure they'll want you to have the best you could have."

"Who will keep them warm at night?" he asked, tears dropping on his cheeks, and Katsuki smiled.

"I will. And Camie, and Eri. Don't worry, kid, we got this."

Setora's bottom lip trembled, and before Katsuki knew it, he had thrown his arms around his neck, sobbing like the child he was, the file falling between them. It made him freeze and look at Todoroki confusedly before he embraced the kid.

"You did good, kid," he said patting his back. "Is time to start receiving."

"Please, don't tell anyone I cried," Setora said and Katsuki laughed.

"Now, that's more like the Blue Dragon I met. Still a stupid nickname, though."

"It's most definitely not."

It took a while for the crying to stop and Setora finally let go of him, and then Bakugo said it was time for them to talk alone, so he got up to leave. Todoroki held his arm before he could go.

"You're good with kids, you know?"

"Whatever."

Katsuki had to patrol that night, so Eri told him to go get some rest and he actually did what she said for once. Tominaga had taken over his bed (he guessed it was going to happen since they left her unattended for a while), so he got himself a blanket, set his phone's alarm and got comfortable on the sofa. He woke up a few hours later with the smell of soba and a voice message from none less than Mina.

" _Hey, babe! How you doing? I got your message the other day and I've been thinking about it ever since, trying to find a solution to your problem. Well, I know you don't like small talk, so I'll tell you right away that KoKo found a place! It's temporary, and a couple of communities from where you're living now, but it's a good place, I swear, and it has all eight beds you need. It'll do while we look for a permanent place for them. Send me the names of the children and I'll expedite the process for you. They probably will be able to go tomorrow already, but I'll let you know. Gonna text you the address too. No need to thank me, you're my boo. Can't wait to see you! Love you! Toddles!_ "

Mina was really something, wasn't she? He couldn't believe she found shelter for the children so fast, he messaged her only a couple of days prior; knowing that Setora was the one who provided their warmth and hot water with his quirk, he knew that if that DNA test came up positive, they'd have to find another option for those children to stay warm. With Mina's wife, Koine, influence in the communities, he knew he could find something reliable, but he didn't know they'd be able to do it so fast.

"Kids are asking about you," Eri said coming from the front door. "Ao wants you to be there when they tell that he'll be leaving."

" _Why?_ " Katsuki asked and she shrugged. "I'll be down in ten. And I'll need you to separate the files of the street kids."

"Sure, what for?"

Katsuki smiled.

"I'll forward you the message."

"Okie dokie. Oh, and Juri's still sleeping?"

"I don't know, I'll check it out."

Tominaga was still in his bed, but she'd taken one of his books to read. He sat by her side and made her put the book down.

"Feeling better, Eleven?" he asked and she rolled her eyes.

"I hate that nickname," she complained and Katsuki smirked.

"I know, that's my specialty: giving nicknames people will hate. That's the fun of it, kid."

"Except for Deku," she said and he frowned. "He took the nickname in."

"How do you know about Deku?"

Tominaga shrugged.

"There's this thing people invented, it's called the internet. Not sure you heard about it."

"Oh, she's got jokes," he said and she chuckled.

"Nah, actually… Creati told us. Someone mentioned that you had nicknamed everyone and asked if it'd been like this when you were in school too, and she told us."

"Goddammit, Ponytail," Katsuki said under his breath and Tominaga smiled. She looked better. The difference some actual rest and hygiene could do. "So, are you hungry? It's dinner time already."

She nodded and sat the book down on the bed, sat up with her legs crossed. The clothes the boys had chosen for her were at tad too big, but if Katsuki remembered well she always wore clothes too big, and she looked warm enough, so it was alright.

"Think you can eat a bit more now?" he asked and she nodded again.

"I'm feeling better," she said. "Thank you, Bakugo."

"It's fine, kiddo. Go wash your face and we'll go down to eat."

It was cold as fuck — not the best weather for Ground Zero — but Katsuki was oddly cheerful during his patrol that night. The neighborhood was quiet as if it sensed it was a good day and wanted to offer him a present, and he spent most of the time doing simple tasks, like rescuing cats from trees and stopping petty criminals until it was time to go home.

Camie arrived after lunch in a hurry, and even so she wasn't able to catch Todoroki, Momo, and Setora leaving. Some of the children asked for help with their homework, so the garage was open that afternoon.

"What is it, Utsushimi Camie is _using her car_? Do you even _care_ for the environment?" Katsuki asked feigning shock and she gave him the tongue.

"Eri asked me to. Did I miss Setora's farewell?" she asked and he nodded. "Fuck."

"Don't worry, he asked me to give you this," he said fishing a folded paper from his pocket and handing it to her. It was a card, and she opened the largest smile when she read it.

"Precious," she said under her breath, and then she looked at him. "Care to inform me why did I have to come with my car?"

Katsuki stepped closer because the information was still confidential. A few feet from them, Eri and Kota were sitting with the children and helping them with their school work.

"We found a shelter for them," he told her and her eyes lit up.

"You did?"

"Well, actually, Mina and KoKo did, but anyway. I'm waiting for Mina's thumb up to take them there tonight. Since it's a couple of communities away, I thought about taking them by car. Kota came in his too."

"How many beds?" she asked.

"Eight. It's temporary, but she said she's working on finding something closer."

"That's great. Katsuki, that's so great."

"I know. It's like the universe aligned or something."

Camie smiled.

"Well, would you look at you," she said, hand on his jaw making him pout. "Did Juri stay with you for the night?"

Katsuki shooed her hand away and then shook his head no.

"She decided to go back with the others. It was Setora's last night, and he wanted to stay with them, so…"

"That kid is really something," she said holding the card close to her heart. Katsuki mustered all his courage, pushed by that universal good vibes they were currently enjoying, and he put a strand behind her ear.

"I was thinking that maybe," he said, Camie staring at him curiously. "Since you have a free night today after we take the kids there, we could go out, the two of us."

"Like a date?" she asked and he nodded.

"Like a date."

"Sounds lovely."

And they did just that. They drove the children to the shelter and made sure they were all accommodated. They talked to them about curfews and rules, and told them how to go from the shelter to Katsuki's garage using the public transportation and assured they'd stay in contact to tell them when a closer by shelter would be available. And then, they drove back to Katsuki's before they headed by train to a bar with quiet music where they could enjoy each other's company.

When they returned to his home, it already was late into the night. Camie had her car there, but he asked if she wanted to come up and she said yes. He opened a bottle of wine — the first since he officially moved there and had an inaugural dinner with his parents and sister — and for the first time in fourteen years, Katsuki kissed her.

There was something to be said about a memory compared to reality. That time, when Katsuki was in his second year of high school, Camie one year ahead of him, and she asked to spend the night at his place because it was closer to the airport, they did _a lot of things_. They had a busy day all for themselves, and it was amazing, but it'd been in the quiet of the night that they really, profoundly felt each other. The memory he kept closer to heart when he remembered the first and only time they got together was the one of her sneaking in his room when everyone was asleep, of them quietly making love under his black sheets, her nails digging in his shoulders as they moved together, slow, long kisses under their breath.

It didn't compare to the type of love he made with Eijiro, those had been two completely different experiences. Katsuki and Camie, like they explained to Momo that week, it was like they knew they would have one chance to be together and never again. Like their destiny was to not cross again, just this once. And as the clock ticked closer to the time she would leave, more they tried to enjoy each other's company.

At the time, Katsuki didn't know with whom he'd spend the rest of his days. He loved Kiri, yet wasn't sure they'd last. He had this _thing_ with Mina, he was a little bit in love with Ochaco, and he absolutely adored Camie. Odds were he wouldn't end up with any of them. At the time, he had no idea that he would lose Ocha, or that his and Eijiro love would star-cross, and he never, in his wildest dreams, ever thought that he'd have a second go with Camie.

And yet, there they were, in his home, his bed, and she was prettier than she'd been at age eighteen, still soft at the touch like he remembered, still kissing him long and slow, nails digging in his shoulders as they moved, no match to the Camie in his memories and _oh, boy_. He loved her.

It was the happier he'd been in a long time.

He should know that happy moments always came with a second shoe dropping. The high of the previous night seemed to be the peak of his good moments, and right in the next morning, when Eri showed up earlier than usual asking for the new lockers' code and Camie appeared on top of the stairs wearing his clothes, Katsuki knew something was off.

"What?" he asked because Eri had raised an eyebrow at him after seeing Camie and it hadn't come down yet.

"Nothing," she said shrugging, that eyebrow still up. "It's just ironic."

"What's ironic?"

She didn't want to say, but he insisted.

"You broke up with Kiri because you didn't want kids, and the first thing you did when you moved was to start helping a bunch of children. And then, you fuck the one person he was jealous of."

"Who said-"

"You reek of sex," she interrupted quickly and opened the side door to the garage after he gave her clearance. "Anyway. I have a case to crack. Oh, one last thing. I talked to Yu and she'll come next week."

After that, he went to his bathroom and opened the cabinet, faced the antidepressants for a full couple of minutes. The bottles had been practically untouched for the last month, and Katsuki wondered if that was a bad or a good sign. He didn't feel the need to take them lately, and he wondered if it was about time he got back on track, but Camie was humming a song in the kitchen and he felt good. Off, but still good.

Never mind the medicine. Katsuki was fine. He was perfectly fine.

Until he wasn't.

A couple of days after that perfect date, he called in sick and didn't patrol when he was supposed to. The curtains of Katsuki's room were closed the whole time, and Camie herself was working, so she didn't have the time to check on him. He texted Eri and asked her to find a way between her and Kota to take care of the kids while he wasn't feeling well. Some asked if he had the same thing Tominaga had a few days ago and he couldn't even laugh at the joke.

"Everything okay, big brother?" Eri asked on the third day, sitting on his bed and putting a hand on his arm tenderly.

"Peachy," he answered, and even though he could feel her tense, he couldn't quite care. "I just need to rest."

She didn't answer. Damn, she barely breathed. She just sat there for the longest time, until he muttered that he wanted to be alone, and then she left closing the door behind her.

Camie returned on the fourth day. The children greeted her excitedly and asked about her work, and then they asked about Bakugo. She didn't know what to answer. They asked if he was sad like Ms. Eri had been sad, and she couldn't tell. Eri swore she wasn't sad and said Katsuki was ill, but he'd get better soon. That maybe she shouldn't go up to see him yet.

She went anyway. The house was quiet and cold, and there was food from the last time she'd been there rotting in the sink. Camie threw it out away and cleaned knowing for a fact that something was wrong — Katsuki would not leave a mess like that ever in his life. The door to his room was closed and she knocked once before opening it.

"Katsu-bae?" she called and got no answer in return. "You okay? Kids are asking about you."

Still, no answer. Camie carefully entered the room. He had his back to the door and the place was dark and stuffy, curtains closed, heater on. It smelled of sweat and used sheets. With the little light that came through the door, she saw that some photos that were once glued to the mirror weren't there anymore, but scattered on the floor. She accidentally stepped on one of them, and when she picked it up, it was a photo of him with his friends from school — Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari and Sero, their names were written on the back. She left it on his drawer.

"Can I help you with anything?" Camie asked standing by the foot of the bed.

"No," Katsuki answered. "I just need to rest. Alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I'll be downstairs if you need anything, okay? Just text me."

But his phone had long run out of charge and he wouldn't text anyone for a while if it depended on him. All Katsuki wanted was to stay in the dark and shut his mind like he managed to do when-

Under his pillow, he felt the pictures. He knew which pictures were and he'd put them there not to look at them. Well, actually, he found one of them under his bed, a selfie Ochaco took during lunch at their third-year sports festival. She joked that she wanted a picture with the top 2 U.A. students, like a fangirl, and forced him and Izuku to be in the same frame.

Second shoes always came at the oddest hours.

"Brother?" Eri called from the door. He didn't know how long it'd been. "Do you want to go down see the kids?"

Kids. The reason he broke up with Eijiro. He didn't want children, and now over a dozen of them depended on him. And just like he knew he would, he was failing them.

"It's been a week, they miss you."

"Eri," Katsuki said with a strength and vulnerability that shouldn't be mixed together like they were. "Don't. Please."

He wasn't looking at her, so he didn't know that she had a hand behind her back holding the bottles of pills he had left in the bathroom, and he didn't see the way her lip trembled at his words. She nodded and left keeping the door ajar, just a crack of light coming in.

Katsuki didn't even have the strength to go close it. Instead, he laid down again, not hungry, not crying, not giving a fuck. The weights around his ankles allowed him to sink, sink, sink deeper into forgetfulness and emptiness. At some point, even though he couldn't sleep, he would stop thinking. He knew he would.

Katsuki didn't know for how long he slept, but he woke up to the sound of crying, two women talking. He hadn't been eating enough lately, but he found a strange urge to get up and hear what they were talking about, so he quietly followed the voices, found Eri and Camie in the kitchen. With his back flat against the wall, so they wouldn't see him, Katsuki listened.

"Just tell me how I can help," Camie said and Eri sniffed. She was the one crying.

"I don't think any of us can at this point," she said, her voice cracking. "Camie…"

She was going to say something, but she broke down in sobs. There was the sound of a chair being dragged, and then soothing words to calm Eri down.

"Last time he was like this…" Eri tried to say and she hiccupped. "You have no idea, no one has any idea."

"When was it?" Camie asked.

"Deku," Eri said and sobbed a bit more. "It broke him, Camie. He was never the same again, my big brother. I couldn't help him then and I don't know how to help him now."

Oh, but she did. She helped him so much, she had no idea.

"You were just a child," Camie said. "What? Nine? Eight?"

Eight. His baby sister was only eight and Deku was her hero. She was eight and she handled it better than Katsuki ever could.

"He was doing so well, Camie, he was so happy. Why did he stop taking those?"

"I don't know. Maybe he thought he didn't need them anymore?"

Eri sniffed, hiccupped. Camie was somehow right about him, he really thought he'd be able to handle life without his meds lately, and he wondered…

Someone picked up a bottle of medicine because he heard the sound of the pills clicking against each other.

"I wish he wouldn't have to take these," Eri said. "Antidepressants. All I want in this world, Camie, is for my brother to be simply happy. Just that. But he's sick, and nothing is simple anymore, I guess."

"Yeah, it's not," Camie agreed. "Sometimes, things need to get harder to make us stronger. I've learned that when I went to another country; we don't always understand why life does what it does to us, but we got a say on how to get on our feet. Like those kids we're helping do, you know?"

"By all means necessary," Eri said somberly.

"For Katsuki, maybe the means is the medicine. And maybe he'll have to take them for the rest of his life to be simply happy, the way you hope he'll be. Simple is different for everyone. We do what we can, you know?"

Eri hummed an _uh-hu_ and sniffed again. Silence fell between them soft and understanding.

"How did he get out of it the first time?" Camie asked, breaking the silence. With his back to the wall, Katsuki knew the answer already, but he had to hear it from his sister, or he would never acknowledge it.

"On his own."

He went back to his room, quiet as ever. It was dark and stuffy and it smelled of sweat and used sheets. He didn't know what time it was. Late, probably. He left the door open and walked to the balcony, those dark curtains closed. No one dared to open them this time, but he did. His hand moved on its own accord, held the fabric and pulled it to the side.

The sky was pink and orange, dotted with fluffy clouds, and the snowflakes fell down easily over them like a soft blanket, painting everything in white. Katsuki lived in an ugly, ugly city of an ugly world, but the snow… made everything feel somewhat nicer.

Nicer, like Izuku had been his whole life, up 'til he was eighteen and in love, so in love that it killed him.

Katsuki gasped, realizing he'd been holding his breath, and when he did that, he felt the tears on his cheeks. He was crying because the snow was so beautiful, and because three of his friends had died before they saw eighteen snowfalls, and because there were sixteen children now that he knew about to whom the snow would not be beautiful at all, but a threat to their young lives and he didn't want to see anyone die anymore, even though it had been what he shouted at villains that got on his way since before he was a high school student.

That was when Katsuki realized why he became a hero. His purpose, lost some time between summer of age eighteen and winter of thirty-one, found him once again in the form of a snowfall painting the world pure white. He wanted to be a hero so things could start over once he was done. Like he started over coming to this city. Like one of his kids was starting over with the family he found.

Katsuki wanted to be nicer, like Izuku saw in him. And he hoped he could make him proud.

* * *

 **a/n** : - Names don't mean anything special, most of them were taken from TV shows and sports roosters ^^'

\- The song Camie is humming is Metric's Other Side

Thanks for reading! I'll post the last chapter in a couple of weeks, pinky promise! Comments would make me really happy, I'd love to know what you're thinking of the fic.


	3. better

**Author's note** : FINALLY! I know I said that I'd finish this like, three months ago, but the second semester always gets the best of me, and I ended up full of work and study to do, unable to finish this fic. Finally, I got the time to write it, and even though I didn't proofread it, I wanted to publish it asap and let you guys know how this story "ends".

Thank you for waiting and for reading. I put a lot of heart in this fic, and I really hope that you'll enjoy the ending.

 **WARNING** : things are a bit ~steamy~ at the beginning, careful.

* * *

 _"I know life well enough to know you can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. You can't stop people from dying. You can't stop them from going away. You can't stop yourself from going away either. I know myself well enough to know that no one else can keep you awake or keep you from sleeping_."  
Jennifer Niven – _All the Bright Places_

 **III. better**

Back in high school, it'd been strange to see Mina on the sidelines due to medical restrictions because honestly? She was the healthiest of their class — girls and boys combined — and she never ever felt sick, except for that one time in their third year. It happened _after_ , as they called it, and no one but two people knew what was going on with her, Mina herself and Katsuki.

"Nice to see you join us, Ashido," Aizawa said when she came to class one cold afternoon of December, her clothes not nearly what she was supposed to wear for practice. "Did you get clearance from the nurse?"

Mina shook her head no.

"Not yet," she said and the teacher nodded.

"Alright then, sit down and take notes."

She did, as she knew he'd say that. She'd been taking notes for the past couple of weeks already.

Katsuki didn't think much of it at the time, focusing on getting back on his feet, back on shape. The time he spent not eating, sleep schedule all fucked up, and then, with the medication, trying to calibrate the chemicals in his brain, had him walking several steps behind his classmates, and as his mindset returned to place, he realized that that was the last thing he wanted to happen.

He was so focused on catching up with everyone else, on making up for that magazine cover that said he'd be the next big thing, that he didn't even realize that his friend, the only girl of their "squad", the first to come up to him when he returned to school, was in deep shit — partially because of him — until that class ended and she tugged at his sleeve.

"We need to talk," she said, and he nodded, following her lead to a quieter corner of the training ground they'd been using. Mina waited until everyone left before she said anything.

"Are you feeling better?" Katsuki asked and she nodded. "The fuck is going on with you anyway?"

Mina made a face, avoiding his eyes, and then she reached for the tip of her braids, playing with her hair. It was longer now, curls right down her shoulders, and she could style them in so many ways he lost count. She took her time, and when she looked up at him, her dark eyes were apologetic.

"I'm pregnant," she told him.

Bakugo Katsuki was a smart boy. Some might even say he was a genius, but he still needed a few seconds to let the information sink in and the dots connect. Three, two—

"Shit fuck, motherfucker," he cussed closing his eyes and immediately feeling the sweat in his palms. Could this year get any worse? In front of him, Mina sighed and his eyes snapped open. "Sorry."

"No, I feel you," she said.

"It's my fault," he said. "I'm such an idiot."

"I think we can share the blame just fine this time," Mina said, fingers playfully walking up his chest and then bopping his chin. "I _have_ been off my pills."

"And I knew that," Katsuki said rubbing his face. "Fuck, Mina, I'm really fucking sorry."

"Don't worry about it," she guaranteed with a resolution that caught his attention.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. She looked down for a moment, and then back in his eyes again with determination.

"Well, winter break is next week," Mina said, and it was easier to understand that than her first set of news. Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "It's our last year of school, Katsuki, and I worked really fucking hard for this. I'm not going to waste it."

He scoffed, nodding at her confidence.

"Are you sure about it?" he asked.

"Never been so sure about anything in my life but this," she answered, and he put both hands on her shoulders.

"Well, then," he said looking into her eyes. "If you want to, I'd like to go with you. And if you need any help…"

Mina smiled, then, and stepped forward to embrace him, ear on his chest listening to his heartbeat.

"Thanks, Katsuki," she said. "I appreciate it."

"Text me the info, okay? I'll be there."

And he was, every step of the way. The doctor made them do a scan before the procedure started, just to know for sure how far along in the pregnancy she was, and when he turned around, the two of them looked away from the screen and at each other.

"You are really sure, right?" Katsuki asked one more time and Mina raised an eyebrow.

"You know very well that neither of us want a kid. We're not going to fuck it up. This is the right thing to do."

She was absolutely right, even though he never admitted it with those exact words, but most of all, that moment in their last year of high school was the one that made Bakugo feel so betrayed when, several years after, Mina offered the solidary pregnancy to him and Eijiro.

"I was so fucking pissed at you," he told her another set of years later during dinner at this German restaurant. "For offering. I was like, _why the fuck is she offering?_ Why the fuck did you offer, Mina, enlighten me."

Sitting across from him, Mina shrugged.

"I could see how much Kiri wanted a kid," she answered plainly. "When Denki showed those pics of his son, I just sort of knew."

Yeah, that'd been when Katsuki realized as well. Jesus, they were 22 at the time. Had it really been a dozen years since it happened?

"I thought you might be changing your mind," she continued. "Like I was changing mine. I mean, back when… you know?" He knew. "We were too young and so full of possibilities. Besides, we lost our friends, and… being heroes was our shared dream. I didn't want to shatter that by dropping out because of a _baby_ , that would be really dumb."

"Exactly."

"But then… you see, we were adults already, with careers and everything. I could see us getting our shit together and starting a family. Hell, some of us already were."

"You can't possibly think that Denki knocking someone up qualifies as _family_ ," Katsuki replied bitterly, but she waved him off.

"Look, I just thought it would be nice to have that option. Honestly, I'd be the perfect candidate to bear a KiriBaku baby, don't you think? If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even know where to put what, so…"

"I will have you know I'd know perfectly well where to put what if given the right amount of time to access the situation."

Mina stifled a laugh, covering her mouth with her napkin, and folding over. The problem when Katsuki and Mina would get together to chat was that they'd always, _always_ start talking dirty, and people around would shot them dirty looks; normally, they'd go to a bar or somewhere loud enough for them to joke away as much as they wanted without interference, but due to the nature of their meeting and Mina's casual baby bump, that wasn't an option.

Dirty looks would have to be.

"I do admit you are a natural," she said stabbing her sausage and slicing a piece, and then adding some mashed potatoes in her fork. "Quick learner. Your skin is glowing this evening, Katsuki, it looks familiar."

Bakugo's smirk was beyond mischievous, and it was so crazy that he still could pull it off.

"That's 'cause I've had so much sex the past 24 hours, Mina, my ass is round, my personality is blessed. I'm fucking fantastic."

At each word, Mina laughed more, shoulders shaking as she dropped her fork and covered her face with her hands. Katsuki drank his juice and she peeked through her fingers.

"Did you fuck or get fucked?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and his smirk grew.

"Both."

Mina hummed.

"Best kind of sex, I see," she said dropping her hands, as if it was a hell of a serious subject, and then she looked down at his hands. "Married life suits you, huh?"

He looked at the wedding band on his left hand, mulling it over for a moment, and then smiled.

"Hell to the fucking yes."

He and Camie married Vegas style sometime between him fully recovering from his last depression crisis and her 33rd birthday, and for the past couple of years, Katsuki's normal mornings had been like this — rays of sunshine on his back waking him up; blinking lazily; the first golden thing he'd focus on was the blonde of Camie's hair as she slept by his side; he'd push her hair to the side tenderly, and she'd wake up and snuggle closer to him.

(Well, of course those things would happen when one shouldn't have to be up early for patrol, or hadn't had come home late for the same reason, or when Camie hadn't had to do her itinerant heroing, as she called it. Like that particular morning.)

"Morning, bae," she'd greeted smiling, fingers tangling on his hair as she snuggled closer to kiss him. She pressed the question she'd had asked several times the previous night, then. "How are you feeling?"

"Fucking fantastic," he'd said sneaking his arms around her waist and kissing her again, even though he _was_ a bit sore. The night had been so worthy that he didn't even care.

As they kissed, her hands went down his neck and chest, and lower, and he felt her smile against his lips as her fingers wrapped him.

"Thought you said your balls were empty."

"I recover quickly."

Katsuki had pushed Camie to the mattress, then, making her lay on her stomach and he rolled on top of her; her hips were propped up by a pillow they strategically put there and then he pushed her hair to the side again, kissing between her shoulder blades, up her neck, her cheek. She gasped and moaned, rubbing against him, and he put a finger in her mouth that she gladly sucked on.

"I see you're perfectly fine after the surgery," Camie had said as Katsuki used that same finger to test her back entrance. She still was a bit loose from the strap-on of the previous night.

"Got clearance from the doctor, didn't I?" he'd replied, mouth close to her ear. "That why we celebrated. I confess it'd been a while since I bottomed like that, but..."

"Oh, babe, you know I top all the time," she played and bit her lower lip when his finger ever so gently entered in her. Katsuki bit on her earlobe.

"Not today," he said, finger going a bit deeper. "Fetch the lube, woman, it's payback time."

Eri had told them more than once to soundproof their room, because when they had sex, the whole neighborhood knew. They didn't care. So in normal mornings, when Eri would come to work and prepare lunch boxes for the kids to take to school, she'd just endure the noises like the hero she was, sometimes blasting some music to muffle the rest, sometimes, bravely bearing it. Honestly, she should be ranked higher.

"Things sounding intense again," Mitsuha said as she helped Eri with the bentos. Three kids sitting on a close by table already waited for their food, hands covering their mouths as they laughed.

"Doctor said he was good to go, so he's going," she replied making a face. Not a big fan of picturing her big brother having sex.

"I can't believe he actually did the vasectomy," Mitsuha said and gestured for the kids to come over to get their bentos.

"I can," Eri said. "He's never wanted children, and now he has too many."

"Funny, this family of yours," Mitsuha said casually, and Eri frowned at her. "Some avoiding procreation, others…" she quickly glanced at Eri's still-flat stomach. "Not so much."

"Stop it," Eri said elbowing her.

"Please, stop trying to deny it."

Eri didn't say anything and instead focused on separating equal amounts of food for each lunchbox in front of her. And then, in the quietest voice, she said—

"Didn't tell Kota yet." Mitsuha squealed with excitement and Eri groaned. "Or brother."

"Now, that's going to be fun."

"What's going to be fun?" Kota asked coming in their direction, a box in his hands, and Mitsuha smiled at him.

"Pickles in the bentos. I'm sure they'll _love it_."

The reason why Katsuki and Mina met that evening — and he was oh, so surprised to see her sport a baby bump that surely carried Kirishima's child — had to do with those kids.

From the moment he sought medical help again, three years prior, things started to escalate quickly in his professional career. First, hero Whispers, Takai Mitsuha, who'd worked with both Katsuki and Camie, contacted them interested in joining forces with them again and in a whim Katsuki was surrounded by ladies in his agency, his office getting incredibly small as time passed.

Each one of them were heroes with different approaches — Eri was more of a healer, a bit of a mother figure; Camie was very practical, and still worked around the country, while Mitsuha and Katsuki were field heroes of the best category — and in four they managed to have a solid schedule with the children who'd come to eat.

That wasn't the only help he'd been getting. Kota wasn't part of Ground Zero's team, he had his own hero team, but when it came to the children, he always tried to help. His aunt, now retired from the Wild Wild Pussycats, joined too, tutoring those who needed it three times a week. Kaneda Gia, another of Katsuki's loyal colleagues and Mitsuha's boyfriend, had a family of business people who, along with Masaru, decided to sponsor whatever it was they were doing, and now not everything was coming straight from Katsuki's pockets anymore.

The kids… were doing pretty good, actually. A few dropped out and were never seen again, as expected, and others joined. Currently, there were eighteen at-risk children under their wings, a group of impressive little people. With his degree in social work, Katsuki could assist them efficiently, and offer them a type of support and trust they weren't used to. They had been allocated to a brand new shelter organized by Mina and KoKo themselves just a few blocks away from Katsuki's house, they were healthier, using their smarts for good things, going to school. Some of them even achieved big things already.

"What do you say is the next step now?" Katsuki asked Mina over their dessert, and she smiled, chin resting on her hand, elbow propped on the table.

"Why, babe, I thought you'd never ask!" she exclaimed, her other hand reaching for her bag. She got a file out and handed it to him. "You need to make things official. How many children you have now? What are you doing with them? Do you have the right structure? Shit like that. Give it a name, put on a label. Don't look at me like that, it's what you have to do. And then, you'll be able to legally deal with every little bullshit you're supposed to be dealing without anyone bothering you."

"Do I have a detailed version of what you just said here?" he asked pointing at the file and Mina nodded.

"I know you didn't want for things to get this serious, but that's the price you gotta pay, Katsuki. It's your own fault, really, you're too good an educator."

"Fuck off," he replied, though it was the truth.

Those kids who'd been doing well… they'd been doing pretty well, actually, more than they ever credited them. They were compensation for all of the bad things that went through in that neighborhood and all of the shit they'd been taking.

For a starter, three of the older kids got into two of Japan's greatest schools — one in Shiketsu, two in U.A., even though they had said from the very start that they had no intention of becoming heroes. Sasaki and Muira bit their tongues, but Poky had the highest score among U.A.'s support entries, something that made Katsuki very, very proud. She and Sasaki would soon be joining Setora again, now in school grounds.

But that also meant that they caught people's attention. No one from that neighborhood had ever done that well, let alone had a passing grade to join those schools. Children from the slums weren't supposed to get that far, and the media went crazy about them, desperate to know how they managed such feat.

Katsuki's little project was out to the world then. Not that it was actually a secret, a lot of heroes knew about it, some had even paid a visit every now and then — like the Todorokis and his cousin, to name a few — but it wasn't as if he wanted to make it public, he said time and time again that he wasn't in it for the fame, and it made him extremely uncomfortable to ask for Mina's help now.

"You might want to plan an inauguration," she told him. "Call some press, invite your friends, officially introduce your project. I know it's mostly your own money on it, but consider this — if you legalize as a non-profit, you can get a lot more help."

"Inauguration?" Katsuki replied making a face. "Like a gala or something?"

Mina raised an eyebrow at him again and then blinked a few times.

"You know, I keep forgetting that you grew up in the fashion world. Yeah, I guess you could throw a gala or just a reception. I don't know, just find a way to launch your brand, dude."

"I don't even have a name for it," he said, finger going around the rim of his glass. Mina shrugged unworriedly.

"I'm sure you'll think of something. But you might want to do that before school starts."

Katsuki hummed, a million things going on in his head, and as he thought, his eyes followed Mina's gestures, watched how she rested a hand on her baby bump tenderly.

"When is it due?" he asked.

"May," Mina answered. Three months from then.

"I'm surprised you kept with the suggestion, but not surprised that he went to you. What does Koine think of it?"

"Oh, she's excited! We agreed on doing this co-parenting thing and she can't wait for the baby to be born."

"Then she should've been the one carrying, right?" Katsuki asked cocking his head and Mina shrugged.

"Nah, it's okay. I want to do this, and I was the one to offer anyway. Besides, Eijiro and I have history, though you know what I was thinking? It never was just me and him. Always us three or me and you, but never me and him."

"That's 'cause he's gay."

"I know, but one would think," she said casually. "We've had so much sex in high school, but never ever the two of us. Compared to how many times you and I were together, it's kind of…"

"Yeah, I see what you mean."

Katsuki remembered fairly well the last time he and Mina slept together. After he recovered from his depression crisis back in school and the doctor said he could go back to school, Mina had knocked on his door to welcome him back. She'd been unusually quiet as he invited her inside and she talked about how he looked better, even though she didn't see him at his worst to know the difference.

She told him about all the homework they had to do, and how some already had been directed to new agencies to start working, and somewhere in the middle of that he kissed her. Up to this day, he didn't know why he did that. Maybe it was because she looked so sad, or because kissing her would bring back some of how it was _before_ , the reasons were irrelevant now.

Katsuki and Mina were a lascivious couple, but that evening they were erratic yet quiet, and when she came, the effort of two of his fingers after he came straight into her womb, she cried like he'd only seen her do once, ugly sobs and thick tears down the corners of her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she kept repeating when he asked what was wrong, hands covering her face. "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault!"

"What are you talking about?"

"It was my fault, Katsuki!" she said weeping. "It was my idea. If I didn't have spoken up, Yao-Momo would never make those ropes! And if we hadn't gone with my ideas, Ocha would be alive. And if Ocha was alive, so would be Deku, and you wouldn't be sad. I'm so sorry."

"Mina…" Katsuki had said hugging her, and if possible she cried even more. "It's not your fault. It would never be your fault, you hear me?"

That night, he held her until she fell asleep, and she looked so much better the next day. And then, a couple months later, she told him she would get an abortion. The _thing_ they had since their first year was over, but their friendship didn't, and so here they were.

"He's still not talking to you, is he?" Mina asked as they headed out of the restaurant and waited for their cars to be brought. Katsuki shook his head no.

"Doesn't even answer my calls. I don't blame him, I did hurt him."

"I think he forgave you, though," she said, wrapping her jacket tighter around her shoulders. "He's just not ready to look at you yet, those things take time. And you _did_ marry the one person he was jealous of."

Katsuki sighed, so done with that argument. Eijiro was his soulmate, but Camie was the love of his life. There had to be a way of those two to coexist, right?

"I miss having him around," he confessed and Mina nodded.

"Well, send an invitation our way, will you? I'll make sure he'll come and you two could sort it out."

He went home with a lot to think about that night and the weeks that came after it. Truth was that there were kids doing great, but not everything was a sea of roses. Just the other month, someone tried to break into his house and steal his things. They didn't make as far as the backyard thanks to Mei's super security system, but it _was_ scary, it didn't matter that he and his wife were trained heroes, in a community like that, it made them more of a target.

At the time, both Katsuki and Camie were out of town, but his sister had spent the night, and he got so worried about her. Eri was a top hero, with an incredible quirk, but she still snapped every now and then and he honestly didn't want her to feel guilty about anything ever in her life. The moment Kota called to tell him about the break-in, he got extremely nervous, and the first thing he did when he got back was to check if Eri was okay.

The Bakugo siblings, they were one broken duo, but they supported each other above everything else, and that helped them move forward.

It had been Eri who suggested a visit that made everything come to life.

Midoriya Inko worked with his father, but she moved out of that apartment building that had Deku's measurements marked on the kitchen's knocker to a small house a few neighborhoods away. It'd been a shot in the dark when he visited the old lady, but worth the try anyway. He rarely ever visited her, but always made sure to send cards on her birthday and Christmases, and he wasn't sure what he'd encounter when he went over that winter.

Ms. Inko's hair was greying and she lost a lot of weight since his teenage years. Her hands were small but firm, and she sewed Masaru's most valuable pieces with efficacy and experience hard to find in the market. She greeted him with warm embraces, smiles and cookies, and told him she kept all of his cards in a scrapbook.

"I was wondering," Katsuki said after a cup of tea and some small talk. "If you still have his things from school."

She smiled, clearly knowing that he'd ask her that. That was something he was supposed to do so long ago, a long overdue request, and she led him to the garage, where labeled boxes covered one of the walls.

"I know you tried your best, Katsuki. In the end, you were a good friend to him."

He was left in the garage, sorting through boxes of All Might items and old notebooks, and he only stopped when he found a journal from their first year of high school, beaten down and worn out, sketches all over the pages, scribed diets, hopes and dreams all over those pages.

As Katsuki read, turning pages lightly, a small smile playing on his lips, he heard no echo of a shoe dropping. He saw that journal like a memento of something that could never be, but somehow didn't hurt as bad as before, and it was a new feeling he welcomed.

He didn't know what he was looking for, but he kept reading until he got to a page almost at the end, where Deku had glued his first provisional license on it and scribed some notes under it.

 _Today, I got my provisional license renewed, now that I'm in my 2_ _nd_ _year. When I submitted my hero name, the lady asked if I really wanted to continue with "Deku", and I had the chance to tell the story of my pick again. It could have started as Kacchan's insult, but when Uraraka told me it reminded her of the word "dekiru", I didn't have any doubts. I still don't. I'm Deku, alright. I can do it. Plus ultra!_

On his way out, Katsuki asked Ms. Inko if he could keep that journal for a while, and she let him. He also left the invite for his non-profit inauguration in a few weeks, and she assured him she would be there.

When he got home, he sat with Camie and told her his plan. She loved it. They were ready to go.

Running against time, they prepared their grand opening, and even the kids helped decorate the garage, hanging lights and setting tables for the guests. Katsuki would have a speech, and after pondering for weeks if he would need any flashcards, he decided to ace it and follow a vague scheme of notes on his phone.

He also had to be at the door and greet his guests, which was the hardest part. Camie was directing the press to their area while Eri tried to tame the children. They chose Eri for that task because one, the kids liked her, and two, they wouldn't be little shits to the pregnant woman.

One of the firsts to arrive were Aizawa, Kayama, Yamada and their girls. Katsuki greeted them with handshakes and refrained from telling the girls how big they've gotten — that sounded like such an old person kind of exclamation, and 34 was way too young to say stuff like that. But the girls were big now, the blonde one a few inches taller than the brunette. Kayama told him that they got into U.A. through recommendation, so maybe they would study with one of his kids.

"Oi, Kent!" he called and the boy rushed to his side. He'd gotten a bit taller now, almost to Katsuki's shoulder. "You met U.A.'s vice-principal?"

Sasaki's eyes widened when he saw the three former heroes, and Katsuki put a hand on his head, forcing him to bow.

"Ms. Kayama, ma'am," the boy exclaimed, bowing lower. "I'm Sasaki Kent! Nice to meet you! I'll do my best to exceed the school's expectations and become a great hero, like Ground Zero, ma'am!"

"Kiss ass," Katsuki snared, letting go of him, and Sasaki blushed.

" _Bakugo_ is your role model?" Aizawa asked, and he nodded. "Good."

The two men exchanged a smirk.

"Their daughters will start the hero course too," Katsuki told Sasaki. "I forgot their names."

"Of course you did," Mic said, finger guns pointed at him. He turned to the boy. "Mirai and Kalia, they're just over there."

Sasaki looked over to where the girls were and his eyes widened when he saw them. Little rascal.

"Go make friends," Katsuki said, pushing the boy away.

"Y-yes! Wait!" he got closer again, straightened his shirt. "Bakugo, do I look good?"

"Never," Katsuki answered. "Now bounce. Take Juri, maybe she can learn some fucking manners."

They walked inside and shortly after that came the Todorokis.

"Katsuki!" Momo greeted from across the street, waving at him, and he nodded in her direction trying to keep appearances. She practically skipped in his direction and hugged him while Shoto fixed Setora's tie before approaching. "How have you been?"

"I'm good," he replied honestly. "You look extra bouncy tonight."

Momo looked back and then at him again, a large smile on her face.

"He agreed with the adoption," she confided, grabbing his arm and shaking him excitedly. "He's staying with us."

"Now, that's some great fucking news," he said trying his best to hide his relieve and she squealed.

"I know!" Momo exclaimed. "I was dying to tell you!"

"Ms. Momo?" a girl called behind Katsuki, catching their attention.

"Hi, Poky!" Momo said, practically pushing him to the side, but the girl was trying to look past her.

"You came!" Poky exclaimed and ran past them straight to Setora's arms.

"Huh," Katsuki mumbled. "Now, that's another one needing manners."

"Do we have assigned seats?" Todoroki asked, letting the teens catch up on their own.

"Yeah, you see that fucker over there?" he said pointing at Kota.

"You mean your brother-in-law?" Momo asked covering her mouth so he wouldn't see her smiling. Katsuki snared.

" _Yeah_. He'll tell you where to sit."

"I see you're excited to be an uncle," Todoroki said with a raised eyebrow and Katsuki rolled his eyes.

Eri and Kota had gotten married not so long ago, with a big party like normal people are supposed to do. Honestly, Katsuki _was_ excited about being an uncle. They already had two nephews on Camie's side and it was a lot of fun. If the kids started to cause any trouble, all they had to do is give them back to their parents. Easy fucking peasy lemon squeezy. That didn't mean he had to admit it out loud.

"People and their fucking babies," he said instead, right when Shinso stepped out of a recently parked car.

"We'll talk more later, okay?" Momo said taking Todoroki's arm and heading inside, leaving the door so Katsuki could greet his other guests.

Like most guests, Shinso came with the whole family, and as he came ahead to greet the host, his wife unbuckled a red-haired boy from the back seat.

"Hey, dude," Hitoshi greeted and shook Katsuki's hand firmly. "Nice place you have here."

"You have no idea. Itsuka," he greeted with a small bow and she mirrored him.

"You didn't meet Izuku yet, right?" she asked, picking the child up.

Shinso Izuku, like Eri told him when the child was born, looked nothing like the Izuku who grew up with Katsuki — from the short hair to the purple-ish blue eyes, the only thing they had in common was that spark in his eyes.

"Say hi to Bakugo, honey," Itsuka said, shaking the child playfully. "He's Ground Zero."

"Hey, dude," Katsuki greeted. "I used to study with your mom and pop."

Izuku raised his eyebrows.

"You did?" he asked, childish voice of a 3 years old echoing on the semi-empty street. "To be a hero?"

"Yep."

"Daddy teaches at U.A.," he said with lots of pride in his voice and Katsuki nodded.

"That's the school, kiddo," he said leaning closer and poking the child's chest. "That's exactly the school."

Kids don't do anything expected, though, and to Katsuki's surprise, Izuku threw his arms around his neck, quickly jumping to his arms. Shocked, he looked up at Hitoshi and Itsuka and the couple was smiling, so he had no choice but to properly hold the child.

"You know," Katsuki said casually, looking at the kid. "I grew up with a guy named Izuku too. We knew each other since we were babies and studied together all the way 'til high school. Your parents met him too."

"Someone with my name…" Izuku said excitedly. "Is he coming?"

Katsuki looked over at the boy's parents in solemn silence before he answered.

"No, he couldn't come. But his mom's got a seat next to yours, if my damn brother-in-law organized the room the way I told him to."

"Oh, yeah!" Hitoshi exclaimed. "Does Eri know what the baby is already? She's here, right?"

"Yeah, it's a girl," Katsuki said evenly. "Act surprised."

The couple laughed, but their kid didn't understand their chat at all, eyes going from one to the other confusedly. He wriggled out of Katsuki's arms, making the hero put him down.

"Aunties!" he exclaimed and ran to the garage.

"My dad's here already?" Hitoshi asked and Katsuki nodded.

"Same table. Go on in," he said stepping to the side and Itsuka passed by him and went inside, but Hitoshi lingered for a moment longer.

"You're really doing this?" he asked with a sudden seriousness in his voice. Katsuki nodded. Hitoshi smiled and nodded. "Good. Cool."

Getting to know heroes wasn't new for the kids in their _project_ , but they were starstruck anyway (except for Juri. That girl could keep a poker face like no other). Along with their parents, they were set on the same tables as famous people — from heroes to a few celebrities — and the look on their faces was just too adorable.

Katsuki's acquaintances knew how he was with things starting on time, so most of them were already there when he took the stage with his co-workers, and when Mina, Koine and Eijiro took their seats, it was time to officially start. With a reassuring hand-squeeze from Camie and a lovely smile from Eri, Katsuki got up. He was against the use of a pedestal, but what other thing could he use to put his flashcards?

He sighed and approached the mic, straightened his shirt and looked at the crowd; from the Iidas — the whole troupe — to Denki with his only son, his parents and the Midoriyas sharing a table, and the kids looking at him expectantly, everyone he cared about was there. It was time.

"Good evening, y'all," he greeted getting a round of laughter from the guests. Not that he was aiming to be funny, though. "I don't think we've ever had so many people in this garage, damn. Anyway, welcome. I'm sure you're wondering what in the living hell you're doing _here_. Well."

Katsuki looked at his parents, at Yu and Kamui with their little brat; he looked at his former teachers Aizawa, Kayama and Yamada with their brats; he looked back at his sister with that charming growing belly and Camie by her side holding her hand; and he looked at the brats everyone said was _his_ all scattered among the people he considered friends, family, and he felt in his heart that he was better enough to do this.

He could do this.

"I'm Bakugo Katsuki, hero #2 Ground Zero," he said, getting a few cheers from some people. "We also have the honor to have the #1 hero with us, hey Momo."

Graceful as only she could be, Momo waved at the people.

"And the #3 hero as well, whatever his name is," Katsuki added, making little to no case to Todoroki and getting more laughs. Old habits. "A few years ago, I moved to this dump because I was seeking a new start. Most of the time, I'm not sure what brought me here besides the apartment upstairs — it's really something — but I suppose sometimes we are put in places we're supposed to be at. I don't know."

He shrugged casually and put that card aside before he continued. Katsuki knew exactly what he wanted to say, but he was afraid he'd let something pass, so the cards helped a lot. Some could say he lost his edge, but he was way past caring about that kind of thing.

"Because this is close to a somewhat commercial area, I've noticed a great circulation of people, especially children in these streets," he continued, pointing to places he meant as he talked. "Those kids were obviously starving and doing their best to survive. Now, you see, I've never had to _survive_ , but I can see what it looks like. I could see it in them. I don't know about you, but as a hero, we shouldn't think that _surviving_ is a good enough way of life."

For a brief second, he caught Setora's eyes and the boy looked down.

"That's why, I believe, Camie went to Uganda for hero work, and why Eri studied medicine, and why… I decided to feed those kids twice a day. It wasn't much, I know, but if they at least had something to eat, I thought, maybe they could occupy their minds with something else, wish for something else. That's how it started. I didn't know I was actually starting something until Camie came along, and Eri insisted on working with me. I kept wondering why they wanted to be part of this, but things kept happening—"

At that, he looked over at the Todorokis again, and then he found Poky and Sasaki, the kids who made him famous again and brought him to this moment. He wondered if he'd be able to keep the kids together now that their leaders were leaving to a big city with bigger dreams, but that was something he'd have to figure out after the next school year starts.

"At one point, I had to seek my friend Mina's advice," Katsuki continued nodding in her direction, and she waved at him with the largest smile she could muster. "Have you met her work? She and Koine told me I had a lot of work ahead of me — so much I didn't know where to start, and even for that Mina had an answer for me. She told me… to choose a name."

With sweaty palms, Katsuki reached for the inner pocket of his jacket and got out the old, beaten down journal that belonged to Izuku and sat it next to his flash cards. He wiped his hands on his pants — not the classiest thing to do, but he wasn't known for his manners anyway — swallowed the lump in his throat and kept talking.

"Now, allow me to tell you a story. There was this boy I met when I was a baby who was barely younger than me. We knew each other because our parents knew each other, and I absolutely… _despised_ him. We were too young for me to remember why I first disliked him, but if I look as further back as possible, I can remember finding him _so damn nice_ it was disgusting. You know? Genuine good people are legends, like unicorns. But he was nice. Hell, he was impossibly nice, I couldn't understand _why_. And I'd beat the shit out of him but he'd _always come back_."

Katsuki paused, fingers lightly tracing the cover of the journal. He didn't need the flashcards anymore to continue, he just needed to keep his cool.

"We grew up together and got in the same school, U.A., same class and everything. Mind you that I didn't think he was good for shit, but he was a hard-working kid and with his quirk he quickly became _something_. Eventually, he proved to be his own person, lost his fear of me, made new friends and gave me the best fights I've ever had. And _eventually_ , the grudge was gone. We weren't exactly friends, but we… found middle ground, I think."

He opened the journal, the page he wanted already marked.

"I was hardly ever nice to him, but that's the thing about time — it figures things out. He even chose the not-so-nice nickname I gave him as his hero name, and of course it pissed me off, but because his friend — who later became his girlfriend — found a new meaning for it, he took it. Embraced it."

The room was completely silent, not even the little kids making a noise, and that was why Katsuki heard the sniffs. He didn't want to make anyone cry as much as he wanted to make them laugh, but it looked like he achieved both.

"In our final year of school," he continued. "Three of our colleagues died. Mineta, who couldn't take it, proof that we fail people all the time if we're not careful. And then… Ochaco, the girlfriend." Katsuki smiled. "She was really something, and it was so easy to fall in love with her. She was taken from this world with not as much as a goodbye and it crushed us. Him more than anyone. Izuku. Who went after the people responsible for her death and didn't make it back, not this time.

"I've never recovered from that," Katsuki confessed. "Don't think I could. We just… get used to things, I guess. Live one day at a time and learn how to deal with all the loss. I just kept wondering if I could ever be a hero if I couldn't even save those near me. I always thought that the bloody hands were part of the job, but I never thought about how to keep on living a normal life after that. And that brought me here, to this community, helping out some kids, and finally having to put my minor in social services to some work.

"I still didn't have a name, though," he said. "And it led me back to my old neighborhood, where I visited the Midoriyas. Mrs. Inko still works with my dad, and I believe part of my hero costume was her work. It looks awesome."

"Just followed your design, Katsuki!" Inko shouted from her seat. He could catch the emotion in her voice, but when he looked at her, she was smiling.

"I'm good at a lot of things," he bragged, getting a few laughs. "Anyway. In the Midoriya's basement, I found this. One of Deku's journal." He raised the journal so people could see. "When we were asked to decide on our hero names, I didn't quite understand why he chose his and never really tried to listen to his reasoning, but now I know better. And if you guys excuse me, I'll read a few lines of the messy hall that was Midoriya Izuku's mind."

Katsuki took a few moments to catch his breath and get it together, blinking to focus the letters on the journal. His fingers found the passage he was looking for, cleared his throat and started reading.

" _I can't stop thinking about what Uraraka told me the other day. Kacchan always gives me the worst nicknames, and I used to hat them, but now that she put it under another light… I mean, yes, I accepted the nick right away because she's cute and I've never had a girl's attention like that before, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. She took something ugly and made it beautiful just like that. I wonder how I never thought about it and if I could ever do the same — take something ugly, make it beautiful. The alias of a hero is an important thing, you know? And that's exactly the type of hero I want to be someday — a hero who takes a dark, difficult, ugly situation and turns it into something of hope, of a new beginning, something somehow beautiful._

" _Uraraka called me Deku because it reminded her of the word "dekiru", that means "I can do it." When she gave it a new meaning, everything changed for me. It made me go,_ yeah, I can do it _. Right? I can do it. I'll be hero Deku._ "

Solemnly, Katsuki looked up at his audience. From a table at the back, Eijiro nodded at him, the closest thing to forgiveness Katsuki would get from him for now. It could make do.

Things were looking up.

"So," Katsuki continued opening a smile. "With no further ado, welcome… to Dekiru."

 **THE END**

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a/n: thanks for waiting and for reading, it means a lot to me! reviews are welcomed.


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